Debate of Public School Privatization in Punjab
The misleading and fake reports about the Public School privatization in Punjab have drawn the attention of the Punjab administration.
Aamir Mir, interim information minister for Punjab, on Sunday, refuted rumors that any public schools had been transferred to private educational institutions.
He emphasized that the Punjab administration has not made any decisions about the privatization of public schools and he pleaded with the public to cease spreading rumors.
There has been no decision to privatize government schools, he continued, and no government school has been moved to a private educational facility.
Also Read: Latest School Privatisation List Unveiled
He also praised Mohsin Naqvi, the current chief minister of Punjab, for his efforts in attempting to improve the situation in public schools.
Thousands of government school teachers throughout Punjab were actively protesting the proposed privatization of public schools at the time the minister made his statement.
For the past two days, the teachers have been holding protests and sit-ins, boycotting courses, and locking classrooms. Additionally, they demanded group insurance upon retirement and rejected changes to the laws governing leave encashment and pensions.
More than 100 teachers and students were detained by the police when they used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators.
If their demands are not satisfied by the administration, the demonstrators have been warned to escalate their agitation.
The caretaker government’s plan to transfer 1,000 public schools in Punjab to an NGO as part of a public-private partnership program ignited the privatization debate.
The teachers’ unions have accused the NGO of poor administration and corruption despite its claims to offer underprivileged children a high-quality education.
The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Moonis Elahi, had earlier claimed that Mohsin Naqvi, the caretaker chief minister of Punjab, was treating the infrastructure of public schools as his own property.
In an announcement recently, Elahi criticized the chief minister and charged that he had given favored institutions in the province access to highly valuable buildings and facilities. He said that the interim chief minister was allocating government school facilities as if they were private property.
Elahi stressed that such activities by the temporary provincial government are prohibited by the constitution and the law. He had forewarned that such unpermitted privatization would result in significant fee increases and unlawful profiteering in the educational sector.
