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The boycott of classes by AKES, P teachers

It has been quite some time for now that all the school teachers of the Aga Khan Schools in Chitral have boycotted their classes. They come to school symbolically, sit and chat with each other and leave at around noon. This agitation has very diverse and worst implications but nobody has yet taken a notice of it. The people at the helm of affairs are either ignorant of the severity of the situation or they are ignoring it.

The issue is not a new one as some three year back a similar agitation was held for two months which was later on ended due to the promises made by the then AKES,P management after the intervention of the Ismailia Regional Council. As the saying goes “Promises are made to be broken”, the AKES, P higher authorities did nothing to resolve the issue and buried it under the heap of files for the time being.

These teachers waited for 3 long years for the fulfillment of their demand of raising their remunerations and bringing them at par with the government teachers. The successive regimes of AKES, P gave them nothing but baskets full of empty promises never to be fulfilled. Time has come for them to face the music. Hiding under empty promises would not work this time as the whole schooling system has been paralyzed by this boycott of classes.

Everybody is aware of the fact that over the past few years there has been a quick growth in the number of girls’ schools and colleges in this region. Competition has increased a lot and if timely measures are not taken by the AKES, P management on this crucial issue , parents will have no choice left other than taking their daughters out of AKS and getting them admission in the privately run English medium schools. If that happens, it will drastically affect the student strength and God forbid a day will come when these schools will become a liability.

The way the AKES, P higher ups are responding to this issue clearly shows that they are not really interested in the core purpose for which His Highness the Aga Khan had established the organization. It wasn’t established to first raise hopes of the individuals and communities and then ditch them like anything. It wasn’t either established to throw the teachers into gallows of poverty and develop stressed stricken teachers’ community.

The decision makers still have time to thoroughly analyze the situation and come up with an acceptable solution. If delaying tactics are applied to avert the situation, it may have very serious repercussions and the outcome would be too gloomy for all.

Mustansiruddin
Morder, Chitral.