Any adverse action will do disservice to education sector, warn parents

If the government takes any adverse action to change the management of schools run by the PakTurk Education Foundation (PTEF), no foreign or local non-governmental organisation will serve Pakistan’s education sector in future.

This warning was raised by concerned parents, whose children are enrolled at PTEF schools, at a news conference at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday.

Fearing that the academic future of their children was bleak, they said the government had paved the way to occupy PTEF-run schools by inviting another Turkish NGO to take over the schools’ management without any valid cause.

They termed it a tyrannical move against the chain of elite private schools that have been rendering excellent academic services in the country.

They accused the government of being bent upon targeting PTEF educational institutions on the basis of its short-term, untruthful and invalid political interests without considering the friendship between Pakistan and Turkey.

They said some 26 Pak-Turk schools in nine major cities had been providing excellent academic services since 1995, as some 12,000 students were enrolled in these institutions.

They also said the academic curricula prescribed for students of Pak-Turk schools were in line with the academic quality and standards set by the Pakistani government.

They said the government had from time to time acknowledged and recognised PTEF-run schools’ services, including conferment of Sitara-e-Esar by the then president on June 30, 2006.

Students of the Pak-Turk schools have so far secured 250 medals and awards while contesting in different national and international educational, scientific and technical competitions and fairs.

Referring to the Turkish minster for national education’s recent statement, whereby the Turkish government would send new teachers to replace the present ones, the parents said the claim was unsubstantiated.

They wondered how the Turkish government could send in teachers who could speak Urdu, when the country had failed to send qualified teachers to schools in the eastern province.

They feared that the incoming teachers could not match the professional and academic excellence of the present ones.

They said that instead of occupying a network of schools, the prospective NGOs should adopt non-functional government schools that abound in the country.

They claimed that the Pakistani government had acted in haste, as it had registered an NGO, Muraaf Foundation, to take over the management of Pak-Turk schools, adding that the government had incorporated an amendment overnight for this purpose.

They quoted the State Minister for Education Baligh-ur-Rahman as saying that the first batch of teachers from Turkey had arrived in Pakistan to take over the academic affairs at Pak-Turk schools.

The amendment states that any company’s licence could be cancelled if its policies are deemed to be against friendly ties with foreign nations. The Pak-Turk schools had been founded under the same law.

The parents said that such punitive action against the Pak-Turk schools would severely jeopardise the academic future of a large number of bona fide students in Pakistan, as many of them were being extended scholarship in view of their deserving social status.