Haleem joins teachers, parents protest against Hyd Public School

Salaries, promotions stalled at school adopted by Sukkur IBA

HYDERABAD:

Expressing solidarity with the teachers, staff and students’ parents of Public School Hyderabad - the city’s largest government funded school - Opposition Leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh joined their protest on Sunday.

Teachers complained to him about their salaries, promotions and the alleged discrimination by the management of Sukkur IBA University (SIBAU), which was given administrative control of the PSH in early 2019. The students and parents pointed out issues pertaining to the increase in fee and other academic issues. “SIBAU was a very well reputed flagship institution,” said Haleem. “Despite all political pressures Nisar Ahmed Siddiqui [former VC] tried to fulfill his obligations and raised the standard.”

He lamented that Siddiqui’s successor Prof Syed Mir Muhammad Shah has allegedly failed to contain the political intervention. “The new people who were brought in the positions in SIBAU started working in servitude of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s Sindh government.” He recalled that former military dictator field marshal General Ayub Khan inaugurated the school in 1960. “But [PPP chairperson] Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is privatising this school.”

Citing complaints of the teachers, he said that senior faculty members face discriminatory attitudes from the new SIBAU appointed new teachers. Haleem deplored that the teachers and staff employed at the PSH have not been given increments in their salaries since the fiscal year 2013. He said thanks to the senior teaching faculty, the school has produced thousands of successful scholars, doctors, engineers, lawyers, politicians, educationists and businessmen in the past six decades.

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He found it strange that a man aged around 36 years was appointed as principal of the school in April, 2019, by SIBAU. “We doubt that the land of the PSH will be occupied and sold,” Haleem, who is also president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh, feared. The school, consisting of several clusters of buildings for school, administration, sports, hostels and staff residences, spreads to more than 100 acres. It is located along the city’s rapidly growing commercial market, the Autobahn road, in Latifabad.

Some people present at the protest shouted that the projects for construction of shops and a marriage hall are already in the pipeline. Other protesters grumbled that SIBAU wanted to make schooling secondary as it paved the way for establishing the varsity’s campus in the PSH. Haleem reiterated blame on the Sindh government for destroying the public funded education and health sectors in the province.

He said Rs1,460 billion have been spent on education in the last 13 years but the people have only witnessed decadence in the standard of education. He said 6.9 million children in the province are out of school but the provincial government wanted to close around 10,000 schools. He also found fault with handing over management of the government’s educational institutions and health facilities to the non-governmental organisations.

In the audit report 2019-20 by the Sindh Director General Audit, procurement-related irregularities worth Rs56.37 million were unearthed in the PSH during the tenure of the incumbent principal Imran Ahmed Larik. A total of 18 audit paragraphs underlined irregularities like releasing advance payments to make purchases without tender, irregular appointments, salary increment and allotment of vehicles.