islamabad - Headmistress of a primary school and an official of Federal Directorate of Education were thrashed by a local councillor and some influential people over the issue of a student’s admission.
According to a complaint launched by the teachers of Islamabad Model School (I-V) G-6/1-3 with the Federal Directorate of Education and Aabpara police station, a woman Kashmira Bibi along with some men, including a local PML-N councillor Hammad, went to the office of the principal for admission of her children.
Over the headmistress’ inability to admit more children due to overcrowding, they pressured and threatened her to transfer. Assistant Director FDE Talat Saeed, who was on a routine visit to the school and capturing pictures of classrooms and other areas, was also got involved in the issue.
The group alleging that he was making video of them thrashed him and broke his mobile phone and wristwatch. The principal also fell unconscious during the scuffle and was shifted to Polyclinic hospital.
Director Monitoring FDE, Abdul Waheed said it was an act of harassment at a working place and teachers were quite outraged over their highhandedness but “we managed to cool them down.”
The teachers said as admissions are open, parents and different people keep visiting the school and often pressure for the admissions but yesterday they saw the people quarrelling in the principal’s office.
“Everybody is welcomed here for admission as it is a government school but what can we do when we have no place to accommodate more children,” said Shamim Ara, vice principal and admission in-charge of the school. “Ideally, there should be around 35 students in a class to impart quality education but we have admitted 50 to 56 children,” she added.
Kashmiran Bibi, however, denied the allegations saying she went to lodge a complaint of torture meted out to of one of her grandsons already studying at the school by a teacher when the directorate officials made pictures and video of her that led to the scuffle. There was no issue of admission, she added.