LAHORE: The All Pakistan Private Schools Federation (APPSF) office-bearers, teachers and owners of schools on Friday took out rallies in various parts of Punjab to protest against prolonged closure of schools.

The stakeholders who raised slogan of “Education for All” appealed to the chief justice of Pakistan, the army chief, the prime minister and the provincial authorities to open the schools on June 1 after issuing the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

In Lahore, the protesters gathered outside the Civil Secretariat and chanted slogans against Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas. They demanded his removal for his alleged anti-education policies.

APPSF President Kashif Mirza said the closure of schools till July 15 would result in permanent closure of 50 per cent of the private schools and around one million people would lose their jobs. He said even the worst-hit countries were allowing educational institutions to reopen on June 1.

Govt warns private institutes of action in case of defiance

He said Pakistan did not have the capacity to recover from this huge educational loss and it would damage the education sector of the country. He said 90 per cent of the private educational institutes were operating in rented buildings and the closure of these schools till July 15 would result in permanent closure of 50 per cent of the schools. “The closure of schools will also result in layoffs of thousands of teachers,” he said.

Mr Mirza demanded that the government announce a relief package for private schools. He said the schools could be opened after working out international level SOPs and they were willing to run the schools in two shifts - one from 7am to 10am and second from 12pm to 2pm -- by maintaining social distance in classes.

He said the government should hold board examinations by maintaining social distance otherwise it should pay Rs25 billion exams fee back to 4.5 million children. He also demanded that the government withdraw 20pc fee concession notification in Punjab and Sindh.

He suggested that on humanitarian grounds, the private schools federation would form an educational relief fund for the deserving students and would offer the government to turn around 20,000 schools into isolation centres and 1.5 million teachers could offer volunteer services for the patients.

Meanwhile, Punjab Teachers Union chairman Sajjad Akbar Kazmi demanded that the government should not open the primary and middle schools of the province. He said it would be difficult for the students of these classes to follow and implement the SOPs.

PTU General Secretary Rana Liaqat said the public was not implementing any SOP in shopping malls, markets and on roads and how it’s possible for them to implement SOPs in schools. He said it was not possible to provide masks and sanitisers to the students on a daily basis and a large number of students and their parents would be affected from the virus.

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Parvaiz Akhtar said the private schools would have to implement the 20pc fee concession decision of the government till the closure of schools. He said the DEA could order fee concession during any pandemic. He said action would be taken against those schools who were not implementing fee concession orders.

Minister Murad Raas said the parents could lodge their complaint about denial of fee concession by calling at 04299295101 from 9am to 4pm. He also asked the school education department employees and teachers not to switch off mobile phones and anyone who wanted to leave the station would have to seek permission.

Published in Dawn, May 30th, 2020