Application deadline extended until April 7 as NGOs and private schools show little interest
Public school in Pakistan. Photo: AFP (archive)
RAWALPINDI:
Under the Punjab School Reorganization Program, the interest of NGOs, private schools and education experts in acquiring government schools during the third phase of privatization has declined significantly.
Very few applications were received for the acquisition of public schools, prompting the Ministry of Education to extend the deadline for submitting applications for phase three until April 7.
According to a circular issued in this regard, educated youth, NGOs, private school owners and education experts can now apply to acquire government schools till April 7. Only a limited number of applications had been received as of March 10.
Teachers’ organizations and education sources told The Express PK Press Club that the previous experience of public schools being taken over by the private sector had failed. In southern Punjab districts, buyers have started returning previously acquired government schools. Due to this situation, the government has decided that the returned schools will be merged with neighboring institutions.
In the third phase, 29 additional schools from Rawalpindi were included. At present, the number of government schools in Punjab has decreased from 47,000 to around 38,500.
Applications to acquire public schools will be submitted online until April 7.
Groups, private school owners and education experts who previously acquired public schools have refused to accept more schools in the third phase, raising fears that the privatization program will fail.
Leaders of teachers’ organizations Basharat Iqbal Raja, Akhiyan Gul and Shafiq Bhalwalya said the government’s educational experiments have resulted in a decline in enrollment in government schools.
Old textbooks to redistribute
Due to severe financial and economic crisis, the Ministry of Education has issued instructions to all public schools to collect textbooks from previous grades from students expected to move from first to ninth grade.
Teachers were responsible for collecting these books from students.
To this end, an “old book bank” has been officially created in schools and teachers are responsible for managing it. These old school textbooks will be distributed to students promoted to higher classes.
For the past eight years, the Punjab government has been distributing free textbooks to students of all classes in government schools every year. However, during the 2025 academic session, new textbooks were in record numbers and teachers took some students’ old books to provide them to new students.
