MULTAN City News

Privatisation of govt schools

Teachers warn of closing schools in province from 16th

From Our Correspondent

MULTAN: The Punjab Teachers Union, the District Headmasters Association and the District Principals Association have warned of closing schools in the province from May 16 if the government does not withdraw its decision of privatising schools.

Addressing teachers here on Thursday, PTU senior vice-president Rana Altaf Hussain said that the government had planned to privatise 5,000 schools in the province. He said that caravans of teachers from south Punjab would participate in a sit-in outside the Punjab Assembly building in Lahore on May 14. In this regard, the PTU had started registration of teachers, he added. From May 16, the teachers would stage demonstrations daily, the PTU senior vice-president said, adding that the teachers had taken a strong exception to the Punjab government’s move to handover the government schools to a private entity. He claimed that the provincial government and the Education Department, instead of addressing the grievances of the teachers, were privatising all government schools and colleges in phases. He claimed that the private owners had been delegated hire and fire powers. He said that the administration would fire any teacher without explaining reasons of termination. After the privatisation of schools, each student would be charged Rs 500 per month tuition fee, he claimed.