‘7,000 PEF schools on brink of closure’

LAHORE : Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Amirul Azeem has alleged the anti-education policies of Punjab government had brought the entire provincial education system to the point of disaster.

In a statement on Saturday, he urged the Punjab chief minister and the high-ups of Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) to stop playing with the education system to save the future of millions of students in the province.

He said the educational institutions associated with the PEF were catering to the need of about 60 per cent of students in the province. However, he said, the attitude of the government had brought around 7,000 schools associated with the PEF to the point of closure. Admissions to these schools have been banned.

The students of these schools were denied educational scholarships and HEC funds.

The JI leader alleged corruption in the PEF had made the plight of its affiliated schools pitiable and the schools had been deprived of their constitutional rights.

Amirul Azeem said that about 300,000 students of these PEF schools were awaiting admissions while admissions had been banned in an unlawful manner.

There were as many as 2.6 million students in the PEF secondary education system and more than 300,000 of them were not funded. He alleged that these students had now been declared fake and the funds meant for them were being transferred to the Insaaf Student Foundation.

He demanded that the powers of the registration of the private schools should be withdrawn from the deputy commissioners and given back to the Education Department.

He called for withdrawal of the case against the PEF partners and teachers who were protesting for their demands. He also called for payment of the dues of the PEF before Eidul Fitr and cancellation of “unlawful deductions.” He said that the independent status of the PEF should be maintained and the interference of the education minister in its affairs stopped.