Lessons learned: Millat Grammar School temporarily reopens

81 percent parents voted that the school be reopened on October 3.

FAISALABAD:

The decision to temporarily open Millat grammar school Faisalabad from 3 October was announced on Saturday.

According to Education Department officials, the school was closed in the wake of the Kallar Kahar incident. The school was sealed after its registration was cancelled but the registration has been restored on a temporary basis. District coordination officer (DCO) Nasim Sadiq told a media conference that the parents of 81 percent of the school’s students had appealed for the reopening of the school.

The district administration is taking the school under its wing and Crescent Girl’s High School principal Tahira Mohsin has been made the school’s administrator. A ten member committee of parents has been formed to file a report on the incident and the decision for keeping the school open will be decided in light of the committee report.

Local administration decided to keep the school open so that students could complete their academic year.

The meeting was attended by over 500 parents of the children of MGS. Parents of the children who are enrolled with the schools were delivered a special questionnaire listing two options for the school’s future including complete closure of the school and the schools reopening.

A special team of the district administration had previously sealed the school, when its owners were found responsible of negligence in the Kallar Kahar bus incident which led to the demise of 35 people including 32 school children.

Meanwhile, the DCO said that a formal written complaint has been submitted to the Punjab Chief Minister for granting permission to lodge a criminal case against Shafiq Anwar, co-owner of the school.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2011.