Sindh government surrenders six teachers to NGO

Students, parents of three public schools of Lyari protest teachers’ transfer, NGO distances itself from controversy

KARACHI: Parents and students belonging to three secondary schools of the Sindh government protested outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday over the transfer of six government teachers to a school in Lyari being managed by a non-governmental organisation (NGO).

In 1997, a programme, 'Adopt a School', was initiated by the Sindh government and in 2012, this policy was formally notified by the education department.



According to one of the protesters, Jawad Shoaib, Kiran Foundation adopted Deep Chand T Ojha (DCTO) School in the Moosa Lane neighborhood of Lyari in 2016.

"The NGO is adopting more government schools in the town [Lyari]," he said and added that in order to run these schools, the Sindh government is transferring teachers from other government-run schools, which haven't been adopted. "This all has been happening at the behest of the Kiran Foundation," he said.

The strength of the teachers at DCTO School was 35 previously and it now has an addition of six teachers against 550 students enrolled at the school, according to Kiran Foundation Founder Sabina Khatri.

The Lyari Parents and Social Workers Association protested the transfer of the public schools’ teachers while the NGO claimed to have no role in the transfer and posting of the teachers.

In a current notification issued from the government's District South Education Office, a copy of which Shoaib also shared with The Express Tribune, six teachers have been transferred to the DCTO School from different government schools of Lyari - Government Girls Secondary School Mir Ayub Khan, Government Girls Secondary School Mazharul Uloom and Government Girls Secondary Bihar Colony - which are already facing shortage of teachers.

"The NGO, which has adopted the school, must recruit teachers on its own rather than just shifting teachers from one school to another," he said.

A computer teacher from Government Girls Secondary Bihar Colony has been transferred, who had more than 150 students under her. "Who will teach computer to my children now?" asked a mother, Khursheeda, in anger. She said the NGO doesn't take all students and that's why she enrolled her daughter in the Government Girls Secondary Bihar Colony School.



The transferred teachers, according to another protester, Muhammad Haroon, are hardworking and competent. "What about the schools they were teaching at?" he said, adding that all children of Lyari are equal for them and transferring teachers to an NGO-run school is a conspiracy against government schools.

Meanwhile, Khatri told The Express Tribune that they have 550 students at their adopted school and only seven government teachers. "I have arranged more than 35 teachers privately," she said and added that the private teachers are paid through donors.

Responding to question on why the school needed more than 35 teachers for 550 students, she explained that the privately arranged teachers were for the school's Early Child Education (ECE) programme and for extracurricular activities. "We have coaches for football, therapists, counselors and other specialised faculty at our school," she said, adding that they have only eight subject teachers and are in dire need of biology, chemistry and mathematics teachers for secondary classes.

In order to cater such huge number of students, she said they requested the Sindh government to provide them with a few government teachers. "I don't know who these six teachers are who have been transferred on my request," she said, repeating that she played no role in their transfer. "If the schools they have been transferred from are facing a shortage of teachers, the Sindh government could take them back," she suggested.

Meanwhile, Schools Secretary Qazi Shahid Pervez did not respond despite repeated attempts.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2018.