Up in arms: ‘Teacher’s job is to secure the future not present’

APTA president says dearth of funds obstructing security measures.

PESHAWAR: All Primary Teachers Association (APTA) President Malik Khalid Khan criticised the directives for faculty to carry arms to schools, saying the sanctity of the learning environment will be violated.

“A teacher’s job is to secure the future of the students and not the present,” Khan told The Express Tribune. He said a child goes to school to chase dreams and not trained militants, claiming the government has paid no heed to a letter requesting intervention in security arrangements in educational institutions across the province.



The APTA president said the education department has given orders of augmenting security at private schools while government schools are left to the mercy of disrepair and fate.

He said following the brazen APS attack, the government evaded responsibility and put the onus of securing educational institutes on their administrations, as it issued consequential warnings. Khan said school kitties are too humble to cater to the list of arrangements that include barbed fencing, walk through gates, CCTV cameras, etc. “The schools have no funds to entertain such arrangements and when a letter was written to the education department, it was not even responded to,” he claimed.

Khan said government schools face an even greater dilemma. While disrepair was already eating up their roots, a second threat emerged in the shape of militancy. The dual threat, in his words, is topped up by a dearth of financial resources. While underlining the standard of available facilities, Khan said the boundary walls of only a few government schools in Peshawar have been raised while the rest portray a decrepit picture.

On the contrary, in a handout issued on Friday, the provincial government announced to provide Rs1 billion for augmenting security in schools across the province. While there is no news of the disbursement of funds, district administrations have already begun pressing educational institutions for arrangements against a threat of suspending licences. Most schools did reopen on January 12, but the security situation at the society’s underbelly is still precarious.

The question of ‘enough security’ is itself vague as incidents of accidental fire by armed guards have been reported over the days. Four primary schoolgirls were injured when a security guard’s gun went off at a private school in Mansehra on Saturday. A similar incident was also reported in Sargodha, Punjab where a guard accidentally shot a parent at a private school on Thursday.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, an elementary and secondary education official requesting anonymity said only a few schools in the city have so far been able to entertain the government’s guidelines while the rest wail over lack of funds.

A Swabi government school principal said CCTV camera equipment installed at the school cost them between Rs80,000 to Rs100,000 and the education department is yet to issue a single penny. “As children at a large number of schools in the district study under the open sky, hiring security guards and buying walk through gates is a painful joke,” said a schoolteacher hailing from Peshawar.

Meanwhile, Elementary and Secondary Education Department Director Rafiq Khattak told The Express Tribune the government is taking security measures on war footing. While lamenting a dearth of police personnel, he assured the government will come to the aid of all educational institutions and funds will soon be provided.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2015.