Moalims

GILGIT: Students of Government Degree College in Chilas, Diamer Valley locked up classrooms in order to protest against the absence of their biology teacher on Monday.

The demonstration was led by students of classes 11 and 12. They were joined by many others who also locked their classrooms in order to prevent other teachers from entering them.

“We were forced to take this extreme step,” a student of Government Degree College told The Express Tribune. He said the college does not have a biology teacher for the past three months but the college administration and the government seemed apathetic to the problem.

However, the local administration intervened later during the day and opened classrooms for students who had to appear in exams being held under Karakoram International University and Allama Iqbal Open University.

Identifying the problem

The students blamed Minister for Food and Agriculture Janbaz Khan, who is also an influential political figure in Diamer, for transferring the biology teacher out of the valley because he did not support Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz – the ruling party in G-B.

“Bilal was our teacher but Janbaz Khan forced him to leave the valley for political reasons,” the students said.

Several attempts were made to contact Janbaz who did not take calls till the filing of this report.

The principal of the college, Malik Ashraf, said the concerns of students had been communicated to the director of education and other officials.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Ashraf said, “We have conveyed the concerns of the students through letters to officials and the matter should be resolved soon.” He added a lecturer, Kamal Noor, was taking biology classes as a substitute but the students refused to accept him as their teacher.

Breaking stereotypes

Regarding the absence of the biology teacher, a resident, Muhammad Qasim, said, “This is how our children are deprived of education and then we are blamed for keeping our children uneducated.”

In Diamer about 1% women and 15% men are currently considered literate. Locals are often blamed for the dismal literacy rate but there seem to be various reasons behind the problem of illiteracy.

According to Alif Ailaan Pakistan District Education Rankings Survey 2015, Diamer ranks 95 on the list of 148 districts in terms of education and 127 out of 148 for school infrastructure
and facilities.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1st, 2015.