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Pakistan Alert
Network www.PakAlert.net E-mail: Alert@PakAlert.net February 9, 2003 | Alert #033
The issue is big but let's start by saving this one school whose children are on hungerstrike to save it. Background
The school has been serving its middle class environs for over thirty years and has thousands of graduates serving with distinction in different walks of life. The education merchants have had their eyes on the schools' playgrounds for a long time. The loyalty of area residents and old graduates has beaten off challenges by two of the richest national chains of school to acquire the building and disposes the present users. The Kathiawar Society management committee has connived with another education merchant in creating conditions of increasing despondency among students and parents decreasing enrollment. In the last year and a half or so, the enrollment has dropped from one thousand to two hundred and fifty students. The committee wants to relocate the school to an abandoned dispensary (also in its care) barely large enough to hold this many students. The prize: 8000 sq. yd. of prime land on Tipu Sultan Road for which the merchants are willing to pay Rs 360,000.00 per month!
The children separated from their playgrounds are likely to seek other avenues of entertainment and adventure. Only God knows where these roads will lead our youth. May He protect us all. Action Requested Take a little time out from worries about war to do the following: 1. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper Points to Make 2. Stop the transfer of Adamji School building to education merchants Become a Volunteer - Support this effort by volunteering to distribute this material
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students of Adamjee Public School in Karachi are on hungerstrike.
They have taken this unusual step to protect their 30-year-old school
from the education merchants of Karachi. It is about time that Pakistanis
and Pak-Americans ask hard questions about the educational opportunities
for the poor of Pakistan.
Schools
are a big business in Pakistan. Some are serving well, others are
just making money by exploiting parents and teachers while creating
culturally alien students. There is an urgent need for public scrutiny
of the private education and enhancement of schooling opportunities
for the poor.
Adamjee
Public School (formerly Kathiawar Society School) is in danger of
being swallowed by the greed of its management committee (technically,
a non-profit group).
The school
children end up without their open spaces and play grounds. These
pupils who pay a moderate fee of Rs 500 per month cannot hope to
enroll at the "new" and expensive school which charges
a hefty admission fee in addition to its monthly tuition of over
Rs 3000.00 per month to offset the building "rent".