RAWALPINDI: Parents of children in the Rawalpindi and Chaklala cantonment areas have objected to the cantonment boards’ plans to merge schools in their respective areas because it will make it harder for them to take their children to school.

The Chaklala Cantonment Board (CCB) is set to merge its primary schools in Jhanda Chichi, Dhoke Chiraghdin and Tahli Mohri into two schools in Lalazar and Sabzaar.

Elected representatives have also objected, as the new schools will charge Rs6,000 per child – six times the fees of a single student at the old schools.

“We are against the move, as this decision will not increase the enrolment in schools but reduce [it]. The fee difference will create problems for residents to send their children to schools that are away from their residential areas, and they [will have to] spend extra money on transport charges,” CCB Vice President Raja Irfan Imtiaz said.

He said there was no need to merge the schools, as the facility existed for local residents to educate their children at low costs.

RCB, CCB ready to enact plans to merge schools, raise fees

Mr Imtiaz said the step to raise fees and merge the schools was a strange one. “The elected members will raise the issue in the board meeting scheduled to be held next week against the CCB’s action to snatch the education facility from the poor,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) will merge the Chur Chowk and Siham primary schools into one, as well as the Tench Bhatta, Azizabad and Allama Iqbal Colony, Mohallah Hajian, schools.

A senior RCB official told Dawn the board had plans to construct an education complex on its land for a higher secondary school, but postponed the plan due to land availability issues.

He said all of the RCB’s schools were in residential areas, “and we wanted to merge the main schools”. “We had enough land to accommodate two schools in Siham, and decided to merge Chur Chowk and Siham into one building,” he said.

The other three schools are in private buildings, he said, and the RCB had a vacant government school building in Mohallah Hajian near Tench Bhatta into which they have decided to shift the three schools.

The mergers were initiated to shift schools out of residential areas,” RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood said. “We issued notices to more than 250 private schools in the cantonment areas to shift from residential areas, and we are also following this from our own schools,” he added.

Mr Qaiser said the move would not cause difficulties for people since the schools are near their residential areas and their children would study in better buildings.

But local residents said they send their children to cantonment board schools because those are close to their homes. Otherwise, they could either go to the main government schools or to private schools.

“There are reports that the cantonment board will increase school fees and, in such case, we will go to government-run schools that are better than cantonment board schools,” Mohammad Taimoor, a Tench Bhatta resident, said.

Dhoke Chiraghdin resident Qasim Raja said Lalazar was far from his home, and it would not be possible for him to take his children to school there every day. He said he would rather send his daughter and two sons to the Government Viqarun Nisa School, which was closer.

Mr Raja added that the quality of education at cantonment board schools had been declining, as the CCB was planning to close schools in low-income areas. “The cantonment board wanted to make money from this trade, like private schools, and the merger of schools is the first step in this regard,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2018