Fear prevails among students and teachers of both public and private schools after the recent wave of terrorism which killed over a hundred people across the country.
The suicide blasts in Lahore and Sehwan forced the government to review the security related standard operating procedures (SOPs) that were issued when terrorists stormed into Charsadah’s Bacha Khan University last year and killed more than twenty people.
A letter issued by the District Education Authority (DEA) last week stressed that deficiencies in the security arrangements must be rectified keeping in view the recent wave of terrorism in the country.
Student attendance fell drastically after the attack in Lahore, with parents fearful and reluctant to send their children to school. A message from the wife of a government official also made rounds in social media and contributed to the decline in attendance, alerting parents of a credible terror threat to the city’s elite schools.
Talking to Pakistan Today, All Pakistan Private Schools’ Federation President Kashif Mirza said that private schools were cooperating completely with the government to ensure security arrangements. According to Mirza, schools have adopted around 95% of the SOPs devised by the government, despite it being the government’s responsibility to keep the public safe.
“According to Articles 9 and 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan, it is the responsibility of the state to provide security to every citizen,” said Mirza, who represents the country’s elite schools, including LGS and Beaconhouse.
He further highlighted the fact that school administrations were not security experts and that their primary responsibility was to impart education. “To be frank, private security agencies do not have security guards capable of combating terrorists. These security agencies hire laborers and hand them uniforms,” Mirza claimed. “They don’t even know who to handle a weapon.”
Mirza recently wrote letters to both the president and the prime minister demanding ample security for private schools, saying that there must be a special designated force for the security of schools, universities, and religious seminaries.
Meanwhile, Punjab Higher Education Minister Syed Raza Ali Gillani said that matriculation exams scheduled for March 1 would be held according to the devised security plan.
“The exams will be held under the supervision of the police who will continuously patrol the areas surrounding the examination centers,” he said.
Punjab Teachers’ Union General Secretary Kashif Shahzad Chaudhry told this scribe that even though the government maintained insisted that schools had adequate security, more than 60% of public sectors schools did not even have boundary walls.
“There are a number of government schools without even a single security guard. Funds are collected to hire a private security guard, but he is fired as soon as the school faces a financial crunch,” he said.
All in all, the security around public and private schools is far from reassuring. The government and private institutions are both responsible for the security of their students, but they are also both strapped for resources.
One way in which they differ is that the government fails to bear its larger share of the burden and claims that enough is being done when it is clearly not.