Teachers’ fight: Larkana education at a standstill

Authorities dismiss responsibility as the fight escalated over a personal dispute.

KARACHI:

In a fight between grown-ups, thousands of children in Larkana have been unable to attend school for the last two weeks.

Around 150 secondary and higher secondary schools in Larkana are closed due to a personal rivalry between the additional deputy commissioner, Asad Abro, and the district president of Government Secondary Teachers Association (GSTA), GM Abro. As a result, thousands of children in the hometown of the province’s education minister, Nisar Ahmed Khuhro, return home everyday without attending classes.

While several students and their parents have staged demonstrations, the authorities have yet to spring into action. They have, so far, dismissed it as a “personal enmity”.

“There are hundreds of children enrolled at this school where our education minister received his primary education from,” said a teacher at Pilot Higher Secondary School, Larkana. “Every morning the children come but they are asked to return because the teachers association has boycotted the classes.”

The dispute between GM and Asad began when the latter erected a barrier on the street he lives on and the former called it a ‘no-go area’. After a brief scuffle over the issue that was about to be resolved, both the families started fighting on the ownership of a restaurant in the same area. Asad allegedly instructed the police to register a case against GM, which irked all the teachers and they decided to go on strike across the district.

“Around 10 different cases have been registered against me within a day,” GM pointed out. “This is not my fault as I only asked the additional deputy commissioner to remove the barricades they had put in the place.” GM believed that Asad’s elder brother was a senior leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party and was using his connections to suppress him. “From the chief minister to the senior education minister, everyone knows about this issue but no one is willing to withdraw the fake cases against me.”

Nevertheless, education in the district has come to a standstill. “We have been protesting for the last two months but no one from the government was paying heed to our demands,” he said. “We have no other option but to close down schools for a while.”

Larkana’s deputy commissioner Mirza Nasir told The Express Tribune that it was a personal rivalry between the two Abro families but he assured the administration is trying to resolve the matter. “We have talked to them [families] and will not let anyone disturb education in the district,” he said, hoping the issue will be resolved quickly.

For his part, Asad insisted the police registered a case against GM for firing at his house. “He is a criminal who has now taken shelter with the teachers’ association,” he said, adding that GM had over two dozen cases registered against him in the past. “I have no rivalry with him but the police are investigating why he fired at my house.”

Meanwhile, the education department has yet to learn that schools in Larkana have not been working. “The [education] minister was in his town for about a week but he did not receive a single complaint that the schools are closed,” said Khuhro’s spokesperson. Education secretary Fazlullah Pechuho did, however, admit that they have received complaint and promised to talk to the minister in a couple of days.

“This is not a fault of the education department as the two families are fighting each other and that has disturbed education,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 28^th, 2013.