District Education Authorities: Teachers reject local education system

Vow to protest at all levels against ‘experimentation’


Our Correspondent January 08, 2017
PHOTO: Reuters

LAHORE: Teachers at public schools have dismissed the newly established District Education Authorities set up under the local government system, calling it another experiment with the education system.

In a statement, the Grand Teachers’ Alliance (GTA) – a body of public schoolteachers’ unions – shared its reservations over the district education authorities implemented under the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013.

The GTA stated the District Education Authorities, meant to empower local authorities by giving them full control of schools in their locality, were a waste of public resources.

This is another experiment bound to fail with the education system of the province and would waste not only valuable resources but also the time of teachers.



The statement added the authorities had wrapped the old system in new packaging and would waste valuable resources of the government.

The GTA leaders predicted the new system would unnecessarily increase the cost of running the school education system, increase political interference in the system and add to the problems of schoolteachers.

They said the system was just an attempt to copy the system employed in Europe without realising the intricacies of the system there.

“The government has been continuously experimenting with the system of education in the province,” the GTA statement read, adding now this new and costly experiment would further ruin the education system.

The teachers stated just the names of the designations of Education executive district officer have been changed to chief executive officer and the district coordination officer to deputy commissioner. “This change of titles is being hailed by the provincial government as revolutionary,” they contended.

The GTA announced it would  protest against the experimentation by the government at every level.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9th, 2017.

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