RAWALPINDI: Punjab government has formed education authorities in 36 districts of the province and divisional directorates of education in nine divisions which will start functioning from March onwards, a senior official of the Punjab education department told Dawn.

The chairman of the authorities, likely to be political figures, will be appointed by the provincial government.

The executive district officer education will be replaced with a chief executive officer (CEO) of an education authority in a district.

According to the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, the CEO will be a basic pay scale 19 official from the education department.

A senior official at the education department said the chairman of an authority need not have any experience in the field of education and that they will likely befrom the ruling party.

He said a notification for the formation of the authorities was issued on December 16 and that the formation of the new authorities will be completed by March after the local governments in the districts have been formed.

Before this, under the localgovernment ordinance, 2001, all the schools of a district came under the jurisdiction of the City District Government and the Punjab Education Department.

Talking to Dawn, Executive District Officer Education Qazi Zahoorul Haq confirmed that the provincial government will be replacing the education system and that the initial notification for the formation of the authorities had been issued.

Teachers, on the other hand, are not happy about the provincial government`s decision and have decided to resist the formation of the education authorities.

Punjab Teachers Association leader Saghir Alam told Dawn thatthe new system would destroy the education system.

`The Punjab government wanted to get rid of the education department and to this end, education authorities will be formed in the district, to which political chairmen will be appointed instead of experts in education.

This will destroy the education system in the province,` he lamented.

`Five years ago, the provincial government had control of 63,000 schools, which were reduced to 53,000 because some 5,000 schools were given to NGOs every year.

They want to give up even more schools because they want to concentrate on metro projects instead of focusing on improving the education system in the province,` Mr Alam said.

The Punjab Teachers Association will chalk out a plan for putting up resistance against the formation of the authorities in the province after winter vacationsin schools are over,he added.Talking to Dawn, PPP city spokesman Shujaat Haider Naqvi said the provincial government`s claims of making education free have been proven to be false after the formation of the authorities.

He warned that the ruling party`s local leaders, whom he said were the land mafia, will be given another means of grabbing state land if the authorities are formed.

`The `Takht-i-Lahore` system will be introduced in the province because the chief minister will be appointing chairmen and CEOs from Lahore instead of empowering the local government to do so, he added.

PTI MPA Arif Abbasi told Dawn that education was not the ruling party`s priority and alleged that it wanted to destabilise the education system in a bid to accommodate those of their local politicians who had failed in the elections.

He said local schools should be run by the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation instead.