Uncertain start to academic year

RAWALPINDI, April 16: Admissions given in the upgraded classes of six schools in the city may create problems for both the administrations and students as the education department has not yet notified their upgradation and provided them with the needed facilities, it has been learnt. At the start of the new academic year this month, the administrations of two elementary and four primary schools in different areas of the city offered admissions in higher classes after the government verbally upgraded the schools, said teachers of these schools while talking to this reporter. The Government Girls Middle (elementary) School, Morgah, and Govt Girls Middle School, Rajar, were upgraded to secondary level, while the Government Boys Primary School, Aliot; Government Boys Primary School, Dhoke Chaudhrian; Government Girls Primary School, Aria Mohallah, and Government Girls Primary School, Dhoke Kala Khan, were upgraded to the middle level. "We had been directed by the district education office to enroll students in class-IX but the school administration has not yet received any notification in this regard," said a female teacher at the school in Rajar on condition of anonymity. She said the principal had been directed to use the existing staff and facilities to start the new classes. "If a school is upgraded, more staff is inducted, additional classrooms are added and other facilities are made available," the teacher said. Another teacher in the boys' upgraded school said it would be difficult for the existing teaching staff to take extra classes until the department hired teachers for the upgraded classes. "Every year in May the examination board seeks registration of students of 9th class in all the public sector schools. However, students who took admissions to the secondary level in the upgraded schools may not get themselves registered with the board on time," said Chaudhry Saghir Alam, the president of Punjab Teachers Union, Rawalpindi chapter. He said in the absence of any official notification for upgradation of the schools, the administrations of the institutions would be unable to get their students of 9th class registered with the examination board. He said higher classes in the schools were initiated only after the approval of the required staff and addition of needed facilities. Executive District Officer Education Qazi Zahoorul Haq could not be contacted for comments on the issue despite repeated attempts.