HYDERABAD: The Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, scheduled to start on March 25, are likely to be affected as employees of educational boards have been continuing a boycott of duties against the provincial government’s move to set up the Sindh Education Boards Regulatory Authority (Sebra).

The clerical staff at the Board of Interme­diate and Secondary Education (BISE) Hyderabad and Mirpurkhas locked their offices and stayed away from work on Monday in response to a call from their organisation, All Pakistan Clerks Associa­tion (Apca), for a boycott.

According to leaders of the protesting employees, the setting up of the regulatory authority would ultimately lead to retrenchment of around 2,400 employees. They apprehend that only 25-30 employees would be retained in each board to run their routine affairs.

One of the leaders, Abdul Aziz Qureshi, told Dawn on Monday that the employees’ fear of being sacked was based on an advice given to the government by Dr Asim Hussain, as chairman of the Higher Education Commission, Sindh, through a letter to constitute such a regulatory authority.

He said the provincial government then constituted a committee after which a draft law was prepared for the consideration of the Sindh cabinet.

He said the draft was to be tabled in the Sindh Assembly for approval.

Mr Qureshi said that the boards were set to hold the class IX and X examinations from March 25 but the exam-related material was not yet prepared or sent to candidates. He said the board employees would observe a strike on Tuesday and Wednesday (March 19 and 20).

The protesting employees are led by a body calling itself the Sindh Education Boards Committee to press the government to drop the idea of setting up Sebra. A delegation comprising some members of the committee, including its chairman Ejaz Kaka and Aziz Qureshi, called on Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader MPA Haleem Adil Shaikh and discussed the issue with him.

Meanwhile, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) MNA Salahuddin and MPA Rashid Khilji visited the protesting workers’ camp at the Hyderabad BISE office and expressed solidarity with them.

The MNA told the employees that the provincial government had taken the decision without consulting employees. He said that the government was trying to thrust this authority over all seven boards of the province. He remarked that the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was privatising everything.

MIRPURKHAS: In line with Apca’s decision, the clerical staff of the Mirpurkhas BISE started a three-day boycott of their duties on Monday.

The protesting workers locked the board’s offices and main gate in the morning and pitched a tent outside to hold protest. They were wearing black armbands and raising slogans against Sebra. Speaking to reporters, Apca leader Nauman Rajput said that the plan to set up Sebra was conceived by Dr Asim, who maintained close association with the PPP leadership, so as to fully authorise the Sindh government in running boards’ affairs, including transfers and postings.

“The motive is to open up the doors of corruption to officials of the provincial government,” he alleged, adding that “all this is being done for the benefit of vested interests”.

He apprehended massive retrenchment following the setting up of Sebra and strongly condemned the move. Controller of examinations Anwer Aleem Khanzada also questioned setting up of Sebra arguing that all educational boards were autonomous and self-reliant bodies as they had their own sources of revenue.

He noted that the provincial government wanted to bring the boards under political influence by controlling them through Sebra.

He warned that Sebra-like authority would destroy the boards and plague them with large-scale corruption.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2019