Educators rally against government’s privatisation drive

LAHORE: The Punjab education department has started a new initiative titled Nawaz Sharif Schools of Eminence under a public-private partnership model, marking the third phase of privatisation of public schools in the province.

Under the plan, bigger schools situated in cities, divisional and district headquarters, and tehsil centres are to be handed over to non-governmental organisations. These institutions include schools spread over large plots, with more than 20 classrooms and enrolment ranging from 800 to 1,000 students.

In the first phase, 155 schools in major urban centres have been chosen. These schools each have more than one acre of land and over 20 classrooms. The project has been launched through the Punjab Education Foundation.

The targets set for the programme state that the selected schools will offer quality education through highly qualified teachers, modern information technology and science laboratories, smart classrooms, digital boards, free science, arts and technical education, digital and e-libraries, hostel facilities, and complete sports infrastructure.

Applications have been sought from NGOs, private school owners and education experts to join the partnership. The schools are expected to begin operating under the new arrangement during the current academic session. Teacher training for the initiative has already started and will continue until May 26.

Under the financial model, the government will provide subsidies to private partners at different rates: Rs3,500 per student from nursery to class II, Rs4,000 for classes III to V, Rs4,500 for classes VI to middle, Rs5,000 for arts students in classes IX and X, and Rs5,500 for science students.

Teachers reject move

Teachers’ organisations have strongly opposed the project and said the government is moving towards taking over commercially valuable land occupied by large schools for eventual sale. They described the initiative as an educational disaster.

Teacher leaders Rana Liaquat, Ramzan Inqalabi, Shafiq Bhalwalia and Basharat Iqbal Raja announced a protest campaign against the plan. They said many of the schools included in the project have been functioning for 50 to 100 years and reflect decades of work by educators.

They further claimed that 14,000 schools handed over earlier had already been destroyed and warned that the government was now dismantling the wider public primary and middle school structure. They alleged that within a year, all such schools could be privatised, which they said would effectively close access for poor families.

Official defence of project

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Yasin Baloch defended the initiative and called it a high-quality programme. He said it would bring better faculty, improved teaching standards, sports facilities, free books and libraries.

The development has set up a direct confrontation between the provincial authorities promoting the new model and teachers’ groups opposing the outsourcing of public schools.