RAWALPINDI:
Following the privatization and sale of public schools, Punjab has witnessed a record decline in the number of public educational institutions due to privatization and public-private partnership policies, according to education sector representatives.
About three and a half years ago, the province had 47,413 public primary, secondary, high school and senior secondary schools.
The number has now decreased to 38,108 due to privatization and sale policies. These include 21,637 primary schools, 7,298 middle schools, 8,236 high schools and 937 senior secondary schools.
During the summer holidays, another 15,000 primary, secondary, senior and secondary schools are expected to be privatized under various plans.
In major cities and divisional and district headquarters, the process of selling 500 higher and higher secondary schools built on large tracts of land and with more classrooms under the name “Nawaz Sharif Animation” has also been started.
Requests for tender have already been received. After the summer holidays, the number of public schools is expected to decrease further.
There are a total of 673,120 sanctioned teaching posts across all categories of schools in Punjab. However, currently only 310,401 teachers provide services in schools throughout the province.
These include 161,128 primary teachers, 100,056 secondary teachers and 43,826 secondary and higher secondary teachers. The remaining positions have been eliminated.
A complete ban has been imposed on the recruitment of regular teachers, and no teachers have been recruited since 2018. The authorities now plan to hire trainee teachers on daily wages and fixed salaries instead of regular teachers.
Punjab Teachers Union president Ramzan Inqalabi, Education Pensioners Association secretary Mohammad Shafiq Bhalwalia and Educators Association president Basharat Iqbal Raja said previously privatized schools had seen their education systems collapse. They claimed that the buyers of those schools were now asking the government to return them after failing to manage them.
They alleged that the bureaucracy had “gamed with the education system” for the past three years and accused the government of attempting to withdraw from the education sector entirely. According to them, the objective of the three-month summer vacation is to peacefully complete the school sale process.
They said teachers and administrative staff would not be present during the holidays, making it easier to transfer schools and declare surplus staff.
They demanded an immediate reversal of the privatization policy, saying that the Constitution obliges the government to provide free education and healthcare.
