Community schools closure: SC summons officials, seeks justification

Apex court asks Planning Commission to resolve teachers’ issues.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court has summoned all provincial chief secretaries to justify the closure of Basic Education Community Schools (BECS) and asked for a detailed report from the Planning Commission.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry also directed advocates general of the four provinces to submit their comments on constitutional petitions challenging the discontinuation of the BECS project by schoolteachers who have effectively lost their jobs.

The National Education Foundation (NEF) had established 15,101 BECS schools in 2007, to provide quality education through public-private partnership to disadvantaged segments of society.

The government decided to shelve the project after the provinces declined to own it and pay out salaries to employees from the month of July onwards.

Employees of these schools petitioned the apex court against the decision, saying it was violation of articles 25 (a) and 37 (b) of the constitution, which guarantee education to every child between 8 and 16 years of age.

Planning Commission Asif Shaikh official informed the court that the National Commission for Human Development and NEF were transferred to the human resources division which was responsible for overseeing their affairs.

The chief justice asked why BECS employees were not paid their salaries after June 30. He said the federal government should have transferred the resources to run the project to the provinces.

The additional advocate general for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa informed the bench that the government had decided not to finance it in view of the provincial cabinet’s decision.

Project Director NEF Sadia submitted that teachers were only paid Rs3,000 per month and Rs1,000 for utilities.

“The issue should have been addressed when the 18th amendment was ratified,” the chief justice said.  Later, the court adjourned the case till October 14.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.