Re-allocation policy: Rawalpindi teachers decide to move court

New policy suggests 40:1 student-teacher ratio; teachers demand one teacher per class irrespective of enrolment .

RAWALPINDI:

The Punjab Teachers Union (PTU) Rawalpindi chapter has decided to approach the court against the provincial education department’s re-allocation policy.

Under the policy, each section — primary, elementary and higher — will have one teacher for a class of 40 students. Teachers said that under the 40:1 ratio, schools which have less than 40 students per class will get fewer teachers. They said that the policy, if implemented, will increase the workload of teachers.

The teachers demand that each class should have one teacher irrespective of student-strength as enrolment varies from school to school.

Union’s Rawalpindi President Raja Shahid Mubarik told The Express Tribune that they were demanding each class should have at least one general teacher in the primary section and one general teacher and a subject specialist for each class in elementary and higher sections.

He said that in the primary section, there were six classes and students will suffer if each class did not get a teacher under the 1:40 ratio policy.

Mubarik said that under the re-allocation policy, elementary sections will have 1.5 teachers for a class of 50 students. He said that they wanted at least one general teacher and a subject specialist for each class in elementary and higher sections.

He said the government has failed to understand the difference between a subject specialist and a general teacher.

The PTU president said that teachers trained for specific subjects cannot be expected to perform the duties of general teachers. “The education department has adopted the student-teacher ratio policy without taking this into consideration,” he said.

He said they also needed at least two general teachers besides a subject specialist for higher classes.

Mubarik said that the government was implementing the policy without taking their concerns into account.

He said that a court has already given a verdict that each class should have one teacher, irrespective of enrolment. “The provincial government is ignoring the court verdict while implementing it policy.”

The PTU leader said that the Punjab government merged some schools one year back citing low enrolments with a promise to increase teachers’ strength in each merged school, but it did not keep the promise and the schools were facing staff shortage.

Under the policy, the government merged around 67 schools in Rawalpindi district including 35 schools in the Rawalpindi city.

A teacher, on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that some very old schools in Rawalpindi were merged just because they were operating in rented buildings. “The government merged those schools just to save on rent,” he said.

Pakistan People’s Party Saddar Cantt chapter General Secretary Malik Riasat told The Express Tribune that three schools — Pak Islamia Elementary Girls School, Fatima Jinnah High School and Government Model High School for Boys— in the Cannt area were merged by the government just to reduce education allocations. He said that the government instead of merging schools should focus on enhancing enrollments.

He said that overcrowded classes will have impact on the quality of education.

Executive District Officer (EDO) Rawalpindi Qazi Zahoorul Haq told The Express Tribune that they may have committed some mistakes while penning the policy draft. He said that they have decided to do away with all such errors.

He said the education department has asked the teachers to send their recommendations for consideration by July 15. He said that the final decision would be taken after inclusion of all teachers’ recommendations.

He said there was no need to file a petition in the court as, according to him, a cell was already working in the Rawalpindi commissioner’s office to address complaints. He said that the education department will not take any decision without addressing the teachers’ grievances. 

Published in The Express Tribune, July 14^th, 2014.