Protests against school privatisation intensify in Pakistan

The protests by teaching personnel in government-owned schools in Pakistan has intensified against the federal government’s move of privatising the government schools, Express Tribune reported.
This protest gained momentum all over Punjab province including Rawalpindi. Now, the students of these government schools have started protesting on streets in Punjab province.
The lawyer fraternity in the province has also expressed their full support to the teachers’ movement against the privatisation of government schools, the Express Tribune reported.
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These protestors on Saturday, raised concerns against the dismissal of employees and change in leave encashment pension rules.
The employees of all government institutions of the Rawalpindi Division also warned of further protests, strikes and demonstrations if the issue is not resolved. The teachers have announced to observe October 5 as “Salam Teachers’ Day” and the black day in the Punjab province.
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Protests and lockouts of government schools across the province were witnessed, many of which belonged to the Rawalpindi division. These protests have so far continued paralysing the teaching system of government schools in Rawalpindi.
Students of government schools in Rawalpindi district also took to the streets, raised slogans against the privatisation and announced that they would not let the contractors take over the schools, the Express Tribune report claimed.
Bars associations of Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Chakwal District and Sohawa Tehsil also went on strike against the move and demanded an immediate stop to the privatisation. The Punjab government will sell 20,000 state schools by March 31, 2025, the same news report claimed.
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Additionally, the District Bar Rawalpindi president Intizar Mehdi Shah and Jhelum District Bar president Chaudhary Mohammad Umar Zarif said that the privatisation of government schools would destroy the education system and increase fees by 500 per cent. Moreover, he also feared that the doors of the schools would be closed to the children of the poor.
Due to the privatisation process of schools in the Punjab province, the new phase of admissions in government schools failed miserably. Moreover, there were no new admissions in 70 per cent of the schools. The number of students leaving schools had also started to increase, The Express Tribune reported.