The dismal state of education department in Gilgit-Baltistan
By Tajwar Ali
It has become a common trend in the third world countries to ignore teacher and education department. Same is the case with the teaching department of Gilgit Baltistan; here teachers remain in the same grade for more than twenty years. Provincial administration is solely responsible for this shameful act. When teachers stage a protest then bureaucrats and politicians try to stop them by making some fake promises. According to a survey Gilgit Baltistan’s education department suffers the most as compared to that of all other four provinces. Very much slow promotion process has made this sacred profession most vanquished and humiliated. All other departments of Gilgit Baltistan are gaining benefits from the government quite better comparatively. Powerless politicians can give only statements but the real power lies with bureaucrats about the future of teachers, they have turned down the issue of promotion of teachers. The central government has given time scale to teachers; similarly all other provinces have given time scale. Why the government is not giving this in Gilgit Baltistan. Are we not Pakistanis? This is our question to the chief secretary of Gilgit Baltistan. Secondly the government feels very much easy to criticize teaching department for corruption. In fact some unable politicians made this department corrupt in Zardari era.
Prior to that it was a transparent institution. Traditionally NAPWD and administration department had been the most corrupt institutions in Gilgit Baltistan. No one is ready to expose some mega corruptions of administration department in Basha Diamer Dam in 2011, where an assistant commissioner was caught doing such a huge corruption. The assistant commissioner and his team were not terminated while the government terminated the Director and Deputy Director after exposing their corruption. If the government really wants transparency then it must have treat all departments equally. All teachers of Gilgit Baltistan have staged protest to acquire their legal rights after 11th April; nobody has taken any action or even enquired the cause of their protest. The administration department is currently busy in making transparent examination system in Gilgit, in fact this is not there task it is the responsibility of education department and university. The administration has not paid any heed on the protest yet they are interested in showing their administrative power in examination halls. If administration is really interested in education system of Gilgit Baltistan, then first you have to take notice that why teachers are protesting, what made these poor teachers to tie black cloth with their arms. If nobody is interested in asking the main cause of the protest of teachers then please do not think about transparency, do not think about transparency in examinations; do not think about quality in education.
The process of promotion in education is very much slow, many teachers have been died waiting for promotions, some teachers have got retirement but still the government of Gilgit Baltistan is doing nothing because teachers are by nature noble and gentle they cannot create agitation in Gilgit Baltistan. The gentleness and nobleness of the teachers of Gilgit Baltistan should not be considered as their weakness. The standard of teachers of Gilgit Baltistan should be raised and it should be made equal of the teachers of all other provinces especially the teachers of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Only then it would be possible for us to expect a standard education system.
The writer is a social worker and a freelance journalist. He can be contacted at tajooformanite@yahoo.com
