Unjustified restriction

In a hurriedly-taken decision, the education department in NWFP has issued a directive that teachers serving in government schools will be bound to admit their children to educational institutions working in the public sector. In a statement, the department has said that it will soon undertake a survey of private schools after which action will be taken against defaulting teachers who send their children to privately-managed schools. Explaining the logic behind the decision, the department has said that by sending their children to private schools the concerned teachers show their distrust in the performance of government schools thus throwing into doubt the credibility of these institutions. As far as the government-run schools are concerned, chronic malfunctioning, massive corruption and gross inefficiency have utterly eroded their credibility. Thursday’s newspapers carried the observation made by Peshawar High Court that education department had no such thing as merit in it. The newspapers also reported on a development in which during surprise raids on matriculation examination centres the chairman of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Peshawar, Professor Farhad Jan, censured a woman teacher who was acting as invigilator on a female candidate that was no other than her own daughter.

More than 425 schools, meant mostly for girls, have been dynamited by anti-social elements during the militant frenzy. Attendance in the remaining schools has understandably been visibly thin. In an atmosphere of insecurity and fear, the parents prefer to receive back their daughters as drop-outs than education-obsessed activists shredded to pieces by suicide bombers. In such dismal conditions, if a few ambitious and far-sighted government schoolteachers are willing to invest a few more bucks on the education of their children by sending them into privately-run educational institutions, the education department through ridiculous restrictions should not punish its employees for being genuine seekers of knowledge and learning.