Govt to transfer male staff from girls schools, colleges

After slew of rape reports, process of transfer of male principals, teachers to men's colleges to begin soon.


Perwaiz Khan November 03, 2010

SUKKUR: The provincial government has passed directives to flush out male staff at government girls schools and colleges in interior Sindh. The process of replacing all male staff, including principals, lecturers, professors and administration personnel, began on Tuesday.

Principals, lecturers, professors are being called to the Sindh education department’s head office in Karachi to receive their transfer documents to men’s schools and colleges.

The decision comes after increased reports of cases of alleged sexual harassment in girls higher secondary schools and women’s colleges. The most recent harassment case was reported from Gambat Girls College where a lecturer allegedly sexually harassed his student.

Another recent case surfaced when a student of Government Makhdoom Abdul Rehman Shaheed Girls Degree College was allegedly raped by her lecturer on October 8 when she went to college to get her Intermediate certificate.

Also, there was outrage when news spread of an alleged gang rape of a class X student in Khipro.

The Sukkur and Khairpur EDO education J Ramdas told Daily Express that he had ordered 15 male teachers from nine schools in Sukkur and over two dozen teachers from 14 Khairpur schools to leave their present educational institutes and start working in men’s high schools and colleges.

On whether female staff is available to fill the vacant posts, the answer is yes. Many women who have been promoted to the higher secondary level cannot teach in those schools because men have been appointed on the basis of their political leanings. A woman in Rohri, for example, is teaching in Sukkur because there are no posts available. This way, officials believe, female teachers would get a chance.

The process of the transfer of female principals and teaching staff in men’s colleges to girls schools will also begin soon, he assured. “We think this is a viable way of curbing instances of harassment.”

DO Education Suleman Qureshi said that presently, male staff in girl’s colleges have been limited to their rooms only. “They are not allowed to go anywhere. They just go from their offices to the classes and leave the college from the gate,” he explained. “They can’t even go to drink water.”

Qureshi has requested the education department to speed up the transfer and recruitment of teachers so that there is no shortage of staff and the semester is not affected. Colleges director, Sukkur region, Shahida Peerzada, said the provincial government has asked for a report on the transfer of male teachers from girls colleges in Daharki, Khora, Khairpur, Gambat, Naushero Feroze and Ranipur.

“We have asked the administration of the colleges to provide us with the information and we will submit a collective report soon.” She explained that the procedure of who gets transferred where is decided by the education secretary.

‘Non-functional’ schools

Separately, a survey of more than 100 schools in the remote areas of Sukkur has been completed. These schools are those “non-functional” quasi educational institutes that, after the survey, will be handed over to a governmental department or be converted into dispensaries. The schools are said to be opened up in just one or two rooms, are unregistered institutes with no infrastructure.

Out of the 100 schools, the paper work of shutting down 41of them has begun, according to officials.

Additional Reporting by Shahzad Tabani.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2010.

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