RCB issues final vacation notices to private schools

RAWALPINDI:

Like other parts of the country, the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) has sent final notices to 229 private schools functioning in the residential areas to vacate buildings by December 31.

As the apex court’s deadline of December 2021 approaches, the RCB has dispatched final notices to all private institutions to vacate the buildings.

The notices have been served in the light of the orders of the Supreme Court. The RCB has warned that the school buildings would be razed and lease rights would be revoked if they failed to comply with the final notices.

RCB sources said that all school owners have been issued directions to shift their schools by December 31, otherwise, schools opening in residential areas will be sealed on January 1.

Meanwhile, private school owners have challenged the red notices issued by the RCB in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench.

The petitions in the high court will be heard on December 8 while a review petition has also been filed in the Supreme Court against its verdict, ordering for shifting schools from residential cantonment areas by December 31.

All private schools’ bodies also met with lawmakers and sought an amendment to the Army Act 1924, however, negotiations remained unsuccessful.

The action committee of private schools said that the evacuation order will impact 8,594 schools in 42 cantonment boards, some three million students and over 0.4 million teaching and non-teaching staff.

The officials claimed the decision will force two million students out of school as the institutions will be shifted far from their homes.

They also announced to stage a protest on December 7 in Islamabad along with the students and their parents and said all preparations in this regard have been completed.

The spokesperson said that private schools established on leased and non-leased properties in residential areas would be razed to the ground after the expiry of the deadline.

He said that private schools in residential areas have compromised environment, security and traffic flow.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2021.