KARACHI: Not all educational institutions were happy with security measures as most schools and colleges reopened on Monday following an extended winter vacation amid threats from terrorists.

Many convent schools in the city remained closed with the exception of a few, including St Paul’s, situated next to Army Public School in Saddar, and St Michael’s in Clifton. Senior minister for education and literacy Nisar Khuhro said the education ministry had not issued strict orders to all institutions to reopen on Monday.

“Of course, the schools cannot remain closed indefinitely, especially now when examinations are nearing. We had asked the school offices to reopen and see if they felt secure enough in their area to call the students. So it is fine,” the minister said. “It is not really about whether the missionary schools or private are cooperating with the government. It is that the government cares about all children no matter which schools they attend.”

Girls Comprehensive School in North Nazimabad was open on Monday but the school of around 2,500 pupils only saw some 250 girls attending. “Well, the parents may have decided that the first day of school isn’t important enough. But, frankly, we do have security issues here. It is a big school with three gates and only one chowkidar. A portion of one of our walls is also damaged,” a teacher at the school said.

The education minister said there were 150 schools in Karachi that did not have boundary walls and the government had issued orders for them to construct the walls as soon as possible. “The building of walls is also a security measure,” he said.

Though most schools and colleges had police or Rangers mobiles guarding them, there were certain exceptions. “A girls college, also in North Nazimabad, had no guard at all though the official in charge of their office vehicles had voluntarily come to guard its gate. “I’m not needed for my job till 9am so I thought I’ll stand here to see if all is well,” said the man.

While calling a meeting at the committee room 1 at the Sindh Assembly building to review the security arrangements for educational institutions a bit late on Monday, the education minister said a secondary meeting of its kind to see what they had done and what remained to be done.

“We are facing a very sensitive issue when people with harmful intent are targeting our future hope. The Quran says that the murder of one human is equivalent to killing humanity. The first word in the Quran is ‘Iqra’. God Almight has ordered us to read and study and the ones who read and study have been murdered and are in grave danger. Therefore, we have held a meeting at every level to ensure that our young generation stays safe,” he said, adding that besides other things law enforcement agencies had zeroed in on 50 centres that might be most at risk where they would be patrolling non-stop.

Other measures being taken to ensure security, he said, included raising school walls, minimising the crowd outside school gates at the end of day by removing the food vendors for which the KMC and the Karachi commissioner had been requested to take action.

“We have also issued a checklist to every school and college for things such as issuing ID cards to visitors, registering all visitors, etc, and we would be monitoring all these things ourselves, too,” he said.

Answering a question about why the government couldn’t take foolproof measures to ensure security during the vacation, which was also extended by a week to 10 days, the minister said: “Installing metal detectors, etc, at school gates cannot happen so easily and just like that. Right now it is better to use just one gate where there are several as the entry and exit spot to make monitoring easier. Educational institutions should also restrict their pupils and non-teaching staff from bringing or using mobile phones.”

When pointed out to Mr Khuhro about the vanishing of a school building in Shah Faisal Colony during the holidays, he said he knew about it and had also registered an FIR (202/161) about it. “There will be definite action against people who demolished their school buildings,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play