Teachers reject enrollment drive in Punjab

Teachers overworked from non-educational duties

LAHORE: The school teachers of Punjab reacted strongly and rejected the second phase of enrollment drive that just commenced throughout the province, as the public sector schools resumed their functioning after the summer vacations, Pakistan Today has learnt.

According to the details, a letter was issued by the Directorate of Public Instruction (Elementary Education) Punjab and all the chief executive officers (CEOs) of District Education Authorities (DEAs) of every district have been tasked to start the enrollment drive, by assigning the teachers to conduct door to door survey of their respective areas. The said letter, available with Pakistan Today, also mentions the strategy to conduct the door to door survey in order to enumerate the out-of-school children along with their particulars. The strategy mentioned in the letter states that pamphlets having salient features of the public sector schools would be distributed by the teachers in the catchment areas of their schools.

The letter further demands that the pamphlets will be carrying the result of that specific school in the Punjab Examination Commission of the last three years. Moreover, it has been stressed in the letter that parents of children would be conveyed that teachers, having degrees of MPhil, MSc and PhD will teach their children in these schools. “Teachers will inform the parents regarding the facilities of IT labs, science labs, playground, clean drinking water and toilet blocks with a healthy environment,” the letter said. The second phase of enrollment drive will continue for more than two months and it will be concluded by the end of October. The officers of Punjab government, deputed for each district, will pay surprise visits to their districts every week to monitor the enrollment drive.

Talking to Pakistan Today, General Secretary of Punjab Teachers Union Kashif Shahzad Chaudhry, said that it is not the responsibility of teachers to bring the students to schools as the responsibility completely lies with the state in this case under the Article 25-A of the Constitution of Pakistan. “Yes, we are also stakeholders of this education system but the responsibility of a teacher starts when students enter the schools,” he said. He was of the view that teachers are also over-stressed with non-educational duties including polio, dengue and election duties, and an addition to this list will ruin the educational careers of the students. He further added that the primary responsibility of teachers is to teach only and that the state must activate other departments if it really wants to improve the enrollment in public sector schools. “We are contributing in the enrollment drive for last few years despite our reservations. But we used to organise some seminars and rallies in the surroundings of our schools, urging the parents to send their children to schools, which was enough. Now this time, the government has made us clerical staff that will visit each and every door of the area,” he said.

Rasheed Ahmed Bhatti, president of Headmaster Association Punjab, said that it is completely unfair to engage teachers in the enrollment drive, keeping in view the already shortened academic year of students. “The summer vacations of three months just ended and if teachers will perform the field work, then it would be really hard to complete the course work of students in schools,” he told this scribe. Bhatti further added that the government tasks us to increase the enrollment by ten per cent every year in each catchment area of a school but it is not workable in our society. “At the one hand, the government is running a campaign to halt the population growth but at the same time they are expecting an increase in enrollment,” he said. According to Bhatti, the government can utilise its resources in the union councils if it really wants to increase the enrollment in schools and it should spare the teachers from this drive.

The Punjab government has planned to ensure 100 per cent enrollment in the public sector schools by the end of 2018.