ISLAMABAD: Academic activities remained suspended in the capital’s public-sector schools on the first day after the winter break as the protesting teachers and the federal government failed to reach any agreement on the Local Government Ordinance 2021.

When the schools reopened on Monday, the teaching and non-teaching staff continued their boycott of classes and announced that their strike would continue till the government deleted section 166 of the ordinance.

Under the section, government schools will be placed under the yet-to-be-elected mayor who will regulate the system.

On the call of an action committee, heads of schools attended a general body meeting in G-7/2 Model School for Boys and announced that their strike would continue.

The teaching and non-teaching staff also donated funds amounting to Rs1 million for, what they said, converting their strike into a movement and filing court cases against the ordinance.

Meanwhile, students who have already faced a huge loss of education due to the pandemic continued to suffer. It has been around 40 days since their studies were disrupted by the strike.

The teachers are of the view that the government, through the ordinance, was adamant on placing the schools under the local government.

They say almost Rs20 billion were annually required to run the schools and colleges under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), and the local government would have no capacity to handle the affairs of the institutions.

The teachers feared that the local government, which was run through taxes, would ultimately go for privatisation of schools to meet their expenses, and as a result, students who currently get free education and textbooks would be forced to pay for these basic facilities.

On the other hand, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Ali Nawaz Awan, who is also MNA from Islamabad, has said teachers would have complete job protection and would remain part of the education ministry.

Terming the protest unjustified, he said the education ministry would continue to bear development and non-development expenditures and also regulate the FDE and its educational institutions. He said there was nothing to be worried about in the local government as the mayor would only oversee the system.

However, teachers say the clause in the ordinance clearly mentioned that the FDE head will be reporting to the mayor.

They say if the government was serious in resolving the crisis, instead of interpreting section 166 in an ambiguous and wrong manner it should delete it all together.

Sources said a few days ago the education ministry, on the direction of Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood, Planning Minister Asad Umar and Mr Awan, had proposed some amendments to the section to satisfy the teachers.

However, the protesters on Monday decided that they would not call off their strike until section 166 was deleted.

Talking to Dawn, a senior officer of the education ministry saidthe ministry was making all-out efforts to resolve the issue, adding that another meeting would be held with the protesters on Tuesday.

Earlier, in the general body meeting, teachers’ leaders Fazal-i-Mola, Malik Ameer, Farida Yasmin, Sardar Sadiq and Azhar Awan once again demanded the government to delete section 166 of the ordinance and said schools would remain closed until their demand was met.

Meanwhile, employees of the Capital Development Authority are also up in arms against the ordinance under which except the chairman secretariat and planning and estate wings, all directorates of the civic agency will be devolved to the local government.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2022