Preparations for privatization of government schools across the province, including Rawalpindi, are speeding up

Rawalpindi: The Department of School Education Punjab has decided to privatize government schools across the province including Rawalpindi and run them under the Private Public Partnership system.

According to sources, in the initial phase of the project, government schools with permanent shortage of teachers will be immediately put under private public partnership arrangements, while the department has asked for lists of such schools within a week to speed up the process. are

School administrations have been directed to provide detailed information about their facilities including classrooms, staff rooms, halls, locker rooms, total area of ​​the building, and number of students enrolled.

On the other hand, teachers’ organizations have strongly opposed the privatization plan and demanded immediate recruitment of new teachers.

Central Secretary General of Punjab Teachers Union Rana Liaquat, President of Educators Association Basharat Iqbal Raja and Secretary of Punjab SES Teachers Association Muhammad Shafique have expressed concern that the privatization of schools will increase the cost of education and fees at all levels. There will be a huge increase.

He said that the abolition of the system of free textbooks will reduce the enrollment of male and female students in government schools. Despite negotiations between the teachers’ organizations and the new Education Minister Sikandar Hayat, the talks did not yield any results.

Rana Liaquat said that the education budget of the government in the province is 450 billion rupees, in which a significant part of 380 billion rupees has been allocated for teachers’ salaries. This leaves only Rs 70 billion for other education expenditure, which is considered insufficient.