Teachers protest Punjab school privatisation plan

LAHORE: Teachers’ organisations have begun a protest campaign against a plan under which middle and high schools in Punjab with enrolment of 100 to 150 students are to be privatised during the three-month summer vacation, according to union representatives.

At a press conference, Punjab Teachers Union Central President Ramzan Inqilabi and Education Pensioners Association Secretary General Shafiq Bhalwalia said all middle and high schools with 150 students would be transferred from government control to Nawaz Sharif Schools of Eminence. They said the process would be completed by August 14 and that the schools would reopen after the summer break under private-sector management.

The two representatives said the plan also involved early retirement for senior teachers and the dismissal of contract teachers. They said 19,000 male and female contract teachers, along with non-teaching employees and computer science lab staff, are currently working in these schools and that their contracts would be ended.

Inqilabi said teachers were under stress over the decision, particularly after the government announced summer holidays lasting three months. He said teachers feared the extended break had been given to complete the third and fourth phases of privatisation across Punjab.