KARACHI: Owners plan counter drive against KBCA: Action against schools
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 11: Private school owners on Tuesday lambasted the KBCA for serving notices on them for regularization of buildings and against commercialization of educational premises built on residential plots.
At a counselling meeting organized by the All-Private School Management Association, Sindh, the school owners, who mainly cater to the needs of lower-middle and middle income groups, also finalized a protest campaign to press the government for withdrawal of the KBCA notices issued during the last one week.
The school owners rejected the proposals of the KBCA and the city government’s education department in regard to certain concessions to them. They said that they were not ready to pay fees to the government in the name of regularization or commercialization as it would cause adverse effects on educational services being provided by the private sector in Karachi and other parts of the province.
They disputed the role of the KBCA and said as the Authority had been dissolved any action by it would be highly deplorable and illegal. They expressed the view that since the controlling body had faced with bankruptcy, it was taking all undue measures to generate funds.
It was stated that the authorities were all out to jam the wheel of education instead of ensuring its promotion. The owners were of the view that school managements should come out along with students and their parents, while efforts should be made to get a status quo order from courts on the issue of school-buildings’ regularization.
The meeting comprised two session: in the first sitting, remedial measures and strategies were finalized, while in the second session the recommendations were read out before EDO (education) Anwar Ahmed Zai.
According to the recommendations, as summed up by the school management body chairman Syed Khalid Shah, the administrative and teaching staff would wear black arm-bands and display banners in their schools to register their protest.
It was also decided that the school owners would go to Islamabad on a train to highlight their “plight” and convince the President and Prime Minister on their point of view. A committee has also been formed to move the courts against the KBCA and obtain a status quo.
The association demanded that all notices to private school owners be withdrawn immediately. “We are not against the process of regularization, but a very nominal and affordable fee should be fixed by the KBCA, while the KESC shoudl be asked to implement the domestic tariff in private schools as already agreed to at a high forum,” he added.
One of the office-bearers said that it was high time for staging a protest demonstration and expressing unity as a representative body of school owners.
The senior office-bearers apprised the EDO of their struggle on the issue and maintained that it was highly unfortunate that from Islamabad to Sindh none of the top brasses had bothered to intervene or listened to the school management on the issue.
Mr Zai disagreed with the idea of launching a protest campaign from March 12. He pointed out that he had already taken up the matter with the KBCA and there existed an air of understanding and sympathy, as such any hasty decision to begin confrontation could spoil the “positive developments” made so far.
When a majority of the owners reiterated the resolve to show their strength and agitation, the EDO warned them that he could not be a party to any such move and it would be impossible for him to continue with what he had been doing for the possible relief to the private schools.
However, after a while, when the owners were convinced that a meeting between the high-ups in the government and the representatives of schools would be held within a day or two, they decided to defer their protest campaign for some time.
