April 24, 2008	Thursday	Rabi-us-Sani 17, 1429

BADIN, April 23: Fate of more than 7,000 students of feeder schools run by the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) in Badin district is at stake due to alleged negligence and indifferent attitude of the district general manager of the commission.

The community-based feeder primary schools were opened few years ago by the commission in remote areas of the district by employing local village-based teachers. There are 1,115 feeder schools in the district including 823 reopened schools where more than 1,500 teachers are imparting education.

Schools were giving good results as local NCHD officials and teachers motivated villagers to send their children to schools. However, uncertainty prevailed among teachers, parents and students when district chief NCHD Badin failed to apprise Nazim about the progress of schools and could not get signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the district government.

Academic activities in feeder schools reportedly remained suspended due to protests by teachers against what they called the callous attitude of their boss towards them when they demanded salaries. The teachers were protesting every now and then since last two weeks for non-release of their salaries and against the attitude of district general manager.

On Wednesday, a large number of feeder teachers led by Mohammad Yaqoob Halepoto, Mohammad Amin Soomro, Bux Ali Umrani, Aslam Jamali, Ghulam Mustafa and others took out a rally to protest against the general manager. They marched on main city roads and staged sit-in at Shah Latif road.

They raised slogan of “Remove GM, save education.” They alleged that the general manager was intentionally creating problems for teachers and withheld their salaries to harass them.

When contacted, district general manager Rafeequr Rehman Memon confirmed the District Nazim refused to sign the MoU in respect of the feeder schools and added that the salaries had since been paid on the first day when the teachers held protest. He said that no feeder school was closed.