RAWALPINDI:
Following privatization and sale of public schools, Punjab has seen 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, middle, senior and senior schools.
This number has now fallen 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 upper secondary education establishments.
During the summer holidays, another 15,000 primary, middle, high and high schools are expected to be privatized under various projects.
In major cities, divisional and district headquarters, the process of selling 500 high schools and colleges built on large areas and having more classrooms has also been initiated under the name of “Nawaz Sharif Animation”.
Requests for offers 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 in all categories of schools in Punjab. However, only 310,401 teachers are currently working in schools in the province.
These include 161,128 primary school teachers, 100,056 middle school teachers and 43,826 secondary and upper 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 a daily wage and a flat rate salary instead of regular teachers.
Punjab Teachers’ Union president Ramzan Inqalabi, Education Retirees’ 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 these schools were now demanding that the government take them back after failing to manage them.
They alleged that the bureaucracy had “gamed with the education system” over the past three years and accused the government of trying to completely withdraw from the education sector. According to them, the objective of the three-month summer vacation is to calmly complete the process of selling schools.
They said teachers and office staff would not be present during the holidays, making it easier to transfer schools and declare excess staff.
They demanded an immediate reversal of the privatization policy, saying the Constitution obliges the government to provide free education and health care.
