Pakistan revokes registration of 13 private schools in PoK over anti-govt protests

Islamabad, July 29 (AHN) In yet another crackdown on dissent, the Pakistani authorities have revoked the registrations of 13 private schools in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) over the participation of their management, staff and students in the ongoing anti-government protests in the occupied territory.

Sharing an official order issued by the authorities on its social media platform X, the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) said, “Punishing schools and students for exercising fundamental rights is collective punishment and a grave attack on the right to education.”

Earlier this month, hundreds of school children in uniforms, accompanied by their teachers and parents, gathered at Rawalakot's Eidgah Ground, waving white flags and condemning the Pakistani military's brutal crackdown in PoK.

The demonstration came a day after Pakistani authorities warned that the JAAC would be held accountable for any untoward incident involving students during its planned protests, local media reported.

Defying the warning, several students turned out in large numbers carrying banners that read "International Media Give Us Coverage", and raising slogans against the Pakistani Army.

These ongoing protests across PoK have emerged as a direct challenge to Islamabad’s decades-long control in the region. Pakistani forces have repeatedly unleashed a brutal crackdown, leaving dozens of civilians dead and injured, while the region remains under a strict blockade, curfew, and a total communications blackout.

Furthermore, the revocation of the schools' registrations in the occupied territory comes against the backdrop of Pakistan's deepening education crisis.

A recent report highlighted that, two years after Pakistan declared a National Education Emergency, the country continues to face one of the world's worst education crises, with over 25 million children still out of school.

Pakistan’s education crisis is not only about making policy but about implementation, with weak governance structures, fragmented administrative systems, insufficient funding, poor data integration and provincial disparities continuing to hinder progress, leading Pakistani daily The News International reported, highlighting a comprehensive comparative policy review prepared by the Civil Services Academy (CSA).

The CSA review, compiled by five Policy Analysis Groups at the Pakistan Administrative Service Campus, assessed the education system in Punjab, Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Islamabad Capital Territory, Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan (PoGB) and PoK against indicators of effectiveness, equity, efficiency, ethical governance and feasibility.

According to the report, 25.1 million to 26 million children of school-going age remain out of school in Pakistan.

Diamer district in PoGB has 42 per cent out-of-school children, while nearly half of children drop out of school before completing primary education in PoK. The report said that a common structural constraint for education among the provinces of Pakistan is extremely low public investment in education.