Model schools & government’s apathy

THE Central Academic Staff Association (CASA) which had gone on strike earlier has warned it will give a call for complete strike at Islamabad’s schools and colleges, yet again, if the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) and the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) do not meet its long-pending demands for staff post up gradation, promotions, revision of promotion formula, creation of new posts, and regularisation of daily-wage staff and payment of salaries.

CASA, which represents more than 2,000 faculty members of the capital’s model schools and colleges of Islamabad, has been pursuing the demands of the teachers with CADD for long. CAAD that oversees all government educational institutions of Islamabad, through the FDE, has so far been unable to meet these demands for some reason or the other.

The apathy of the CAAD/FDE towards the Islamabad Model Schools and Colleges has become a major concern for the parents. The teachers whose grievances are not being addressed are thoroughly dejected and, naturally, are not interested at all to fulfill their primary obligations as teachers. Their disinterest is causing serious harm to the students who, for no fault of theirs, have to bear the brunt of the indifference of the relevant authority’s vis-à-vis this critical issue.

The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif took the onus of upgrading the deteriorating standards of the model schools and colleges of the capital on his own shoulders. Towards the attainment of this important goal the PM is being assisted by his illustrious daughter Mariam Nawaz. The assertion of the PM and also the Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhary that the state of affairs in capital schools and colleges are not very encouraging and that there is an urgent need to uplift their current status is indeed praiseworthy. However, what makes the fruition of this plan of the government doubtful is the demotivating factor that currently hounds the teachers of the public schools due to nonpayment of their salaries and their unfulfilled demands.

The highly concerned parents of the children who are pursuing their education in the public schools and colleges of the capital urge those at the helm of affairs in the government to take immediate cognisance of this grave issue and expeditiously resolve it in the larger interest of the suffering students. Will the honourable Prime Minister please issue firm directives to the relevant government bodies to resolve the matter on war footing?

M. FAZAL ELAHI Islamabad