Parents boycott school short of teachers

ISLAMABAD: After the education department failed to fill in the vacant posts of teachers and the headmistress at a government school of the village in Garam Chashma, Chitral Valley, the residents of the village refused to send their daughters to the school.

For the past 18 months, the Govt. Middle School for Girls, Mardan had been without a headmistress; residents told Dawn News on a phone call.

After the headmistress, Rukhsana Parveen, was appointed a year and a half ago, she never took charge of the school and got herself posted at a school in Shiaqo Tek near Chitral town. Since then, the officials had not arranges for another headmistress for the school, said the residents.

For many years, two other certified teachers had also been absent from the school besides the headmistress. There are only 3 teachers present at the school currently who are handling more than 70 students in 3 classes. And only one teacher was present to monitor the recently conducted exams, as the other two were sent to other schools on exams duty.

The education department of Chitral was unable to fill in the vacant posts even after repeated demands, which resulted in parents not sending their daughters to the school. The students had stopped going to the school 5 days ago.

On Saturday, the village was visited by two assistant education officers (ADOs), who reassured the parents that the problem will be solved and the teachers will eb available in school in two days.

The ADOs told Dawn News, when contacted, that the headmistress’s case has been forwarded to the authorities as she refused to take charge of the school.

She said only the KP education department’s director could appoint a middle school headmistress which was a grade-16 post.

The ADO confirmed that the parents have stopped sending their daughters to the school 5 days ago, and added that the school has 7 sanctioned posts.

Source: DAWN News