Maryam Imran, a Grade-6 student in one of the public schools in Islamabad had not been going to campus for almost two weeks. She is among the around 250,000 students studying in the government-run schools and colleges of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). The schools remained closed for almost two weeks amid ongoing strikes and protests by the academic and administrative staff of these schools against the handing over these education facilities to the capital’s local government.

The federal government, recently, through an amendment in the Local Government Act, 2015, put the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) under the administrative control of the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI). The academic and administrative staff of these nearly 400 public schools and colleges is resisting this change fearing that this will affect their job security and benefits and compromise the education standards. They say that this change entails them ceasing to be federal government employees and losing many financial benefits and gains due to compromised and limited budget of local governments which would also besubject to availability. Under the new ordinance, the FDE director-general will also be appointed in consultation with the Islamabad mayor. Earlier, the FDE was a department under the Ministry of Education and Professional Training. The FDE runs from pre-school to master’s level classes/ schools. Out of the 423 educational institutions, 33 campuses, designated as model campuses, are still under the federal government. The rest, 390, have been handed over to the MCI. These campuses have as many as 15,000 teaching staff and 5,000 non-teaching staff.

Teachers’ representatives say that the decision of handing over the FDE and schools to the MCI will result in long-term administrative challenges and have negative effects on the education standards at these schools. They say the administrative control has been given to the MCI merely through a notification after the amendment in the law all of a sudden and without any deliberation — without moving a summary to the relevant authorities or preparing a policy paper after proper consultation with all stakeholders.

“The biggest concern is political interference, uncertainty, and fear of lowering of education standards,” Zia Khan Yousafzai, the spokesperson for the Joint Action Committee of the ICT government-schools academic staff tells The News on Sunday (TNS). “Imagine the political and administrative intervention of mostly unqualified local political leaders, nazims and councillors in the schools”, he says.

“MCI mayors, in the past, have always been complaining of lack of funds and blockage of funds due to political reasons. We see the uncertainty in this local government system. The system lacks continuity and sustainability,” he says, adding, “The MCI already has three schools and they are in a poor state. Everybody can see that.”

“MCI mayors, in the past, had always been complaining of lack of funds, blockage of funds due to political reasons, and we see the uncertainty in this local government system. The system lacks continuity and sustainability,” says Yousafzai.

“Are we going to compromise the education of the kids of the capital city?”he asks raising questions on the seriousness of the government.

He says that the teachers want to work under the federal government for a better future, job security and maintenance of education standards. He says the government should have detailed discussions with all stakeholders before hanging a policy. This, he says, was not done in this case. Schools are now going to open after almost two weeks with a promise from the government to start serious talks and potentially even withdraw the recent change.

Shafqat Mahmood, the federal education minister, however, has maintained that the devolution of educational institutions to local government would not affect teachers’ employment status, privileges and rights.

“It is a global practice. Primary and secondary education is provided by local governments. We assure you that this will not affect the credibility of schools and will not compromise education standards,” he has said.

The students appear to have been affected the most in this crisis. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf parliamentarians from Islamabad also expressed concerns on closure of schools. These students’ learning has already suffered on account of the long closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ali Nawaz Awan, a PTI Member of the National Assembly (MNA) from Islamabad and Special Assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on Capital Development Authority (CDA) affairs, has also claimed that in case the policy goes into effect there will be no change in the job structure, pay scale and job status of the FDE teachers. He says the MCI will have only an “oversight” role.

Last week, the Senate Standing Committee on Education suggested that the federal government form a committee to look into the far-reaching impact of this change of control and to furnish a report in a couple of weeks.

“We are discussing the issue thoroughly. We strongly fear that this change will compromise education standards amid local political meddling,” says Senator Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui, who chairs the Senate committee on education.

Siddqui, who has also been a teacher in a federal government institution in the past, also questions the urgency of promulgating this ordinance. He says that in the absence of the local government system or mayor, which we see from time to time, the control of these schools will go to the overburdened district administration. This will affect the quality of the education, too. He fears that the local political intervention could easily ruin these schools. He says that such actions are possibly a way to lay off workers amid the ongoing financial crisis that speaks of a lack of vision.

The author is a staff reporter. He can be reached at vaqargillani@gmail.com       Twitter: @waqargillani