School principal suspended for lunching after recess

Teachers get show cause notices for leaving students unsupervised

LAHORE: During a surprise visit to a workers’ welfare school in Sheikhupura on Tuesday, Minister for Labour and Human Resources Raja Ashfaq Sarwar found the school staff having lunch while the students played in the grounds past recess. He suspended the school principal.

Sarwar visited several welfare schools, a dispensary and a brick kiln in Sheikhupura. He was accompanied by Sheikhupura Labour District Officer Chaudhry Muhammad Naeem and district administration officers.



He first stopped by the Workers’ Welfare School for Boys in Sahuki Malliyaan right after the school recess had ended. He found students out of classrooms making a ruckus in the grounds unsupervised by teachers. He found the school staff having lunch with the principal. They told Sarwar that one of the teachers had gotten married recently and that they were celebrating.

Sarwar expressed his displeasure and issued orders for Principal Shafqaat Ali to be suspended from service. He also served show cause notices to senior teacher Shazia and others for leaving students unsupervised past recess.

After the teachers called the students back to the classrooms, Sarwar took a round of the various facilities at the school and found them lacking. He said that the library, science laboratories and the computer laboratory were in a “pathetic condition”. He admonished the school staff over poor cleanliness arrangements and missing equipment and books at the labs and library.

Sarwar later visited the Workers’ Welfare Girls High School in Sahuki Malliyaan. He commented on the difference in discipline and maintenance between the schools for boys and girls and lauded Principal Farida Kausar for performing her duties in an exemplary manner.



The minister said he was glad to see students hard at work at the Workers’ Welfare Girls High School. He also commended the janitorial staff for keeping the school classrooms, grounds and lavatories spic and span. He expressed satisfaction with the teachers’ attendance and results in the recent secondary school certificate exams.

Sarwar met patients and attendants during a surprise visit to the Social Security Dispensary in Mandhiali. There he checked the stock register of medicines and inquired about the facilities provided to patients and their family members. He later visited a brick kiln near Joiyaanwala Morr to check implementation of the Child Labour Ordinance 2016.

There were no children working at the kiln. Brick kiln workers told him that their children were at nearby public schools at that time.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2016.