The state of education

ISLAMABAD: The apathy of the Federal Directorate of Education towards Islamabad model schools and colleges has become a major concern for parents of students. The pay-deprived teachers are dejected and naturally, therefore, not interested at all in fulfilling their primary responsibilities of teaching. Their disinterest in teaching is causing serious harm to the students who, through no fault of their own, have to bear the brunt of the indifference of relevant authorities towards this grave issue.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has taken the onus of upgrading the deteriorating standards of the model schools and colleges of the capital on his own shoulders. He is being supported by his illustrious daughter Mariam Nawaz in the attainment of this vital objective. The Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division, Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, has also recently rolled out an ambitious plan, obviously under the directive of the prime minister, for the uplift of the capital’s schools, both in terms of educational standards and infrastructure.

All this sounds good. But what puts doubt on the fruition of the plans of the government vis-a-vis the uplift of the capital’s schools is the demotivating factor that currently hounds the teachers of public schools due to non-payment of their salaries. A glaring example of this fact is the Islamabad Model College for Girls F-10/2, where many teachers have not been paid their salaries for a long period of time. Will those at the helm take immediate cognisance of this grave issue and expeditiously resolve it in the larger interest of the suffering students and their concerned parents? Will the prime minister be kind enough to issue directives to the relevant government bodies to resolve the matter on a war footing?

M Fazal Elahi

Published in The Express Tribune, January 16^th, 2016.

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