ISLAMABAD: The educational activities will remain suspended in all schools of Islamabad on Thursday as teaching and nonteaching employees are all set to bring out a rally against Local Government Ordinance 2021.

The teachers, who boycotted classes for one week against the ordinance, had called off their protest after the ministry of education had assured them that it would move a summary to the federal government, seeking amendment to ordinance.

But so far it failed to move any summary.

Under the ordinance, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), which regulates 423 educational institutions of the capital city, will be placed under the mayor and the local government.

Ministry fails to move summary seeking amendment to LG ordinance

The teachers have been opposing this move, saying that the local government had no capacity to deal with education sector, which required billions of rupees funds annually.

The teachers said that earlier they had called off their strike on assurance by education ministry that a summary would be moved to federal government for amendment to the ordinance.

“So far, no summary has been moved to amend the ordinance, therefore, we have no other option but to take out rally against the ordinance. Our simple demand is deletion of section 166 from the LG ordinance,” said Malik Ameer Khan, President Federal Government Teacher Associations.

He said that teaching and non teaching staff will gather outside the National Press Club before moving towards D-Chowk. “This will be our one-day protest and in next phase, parents and students will also join us,” he said and added that teachers feared that if the education department is devolved to local government, schools education will become a commercial activity.

He said currently schools offer free education and students are also being provided free books, but “when the schools will be placed under mayor, the local government will impose fee.

Besides, our service structure will also be disturbed,” he said. Recently, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) Ali Nawaz Awan while addressing a press conference had stated that teachers and schools will remain part of the education ministry and Mayor will have regulatory check only. However, teachers said that section 166 of the Ordinance says that schools will be devolved to local government and as long as this section is not deleted, the teachers will protest, they said.

In their last protest, leaders of opposition parties, including former defence minister Khawaja Asif, former federal minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, ex-MNA Anjum Aqeel, PPP leader Sibtul Hassan Bukhari, Mian Aslam of Jamaat-i-Islami and others visited the protesting teachers and expressed solidarity with them. They also assured them of their full support.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021