Private schools have expressed support for the national cervical cancer prevention campaign but warned its success depends on parental consent, saying they face conflicting pressure from authorities demanding full coverage and from parents refusing vaccination for their daughters. The Private Schools Network urged the education ministry to require parental permission and warned that any harassment of school or medical staff during the campaign will not be tolerated.
Leaders of the Private Schools Network, including founder and central president Dr. Muhammad Afzal Baber, central general secretary Maqbool Hussain Dar, and Chairman of the Islamabad Board of Education Chaudhry Muhammad Arshad, issued a joint statement acknowledging the campaign’s importance while stressing that implementation must respect parents’ choices. They said private schools are caught between directives from education and health departments seeking maximum uptake and widespread parental reluctance driven by negative social media messaging.
The network said its member schools will actively support the campaign through awareness efforts aimed at persuading as many parents as possible to vaccinate their daughters. However, schools will not vaccinate students whose parents have provided written refusal; responsibility for those decisions will rest entirely with the parents. Schools will also share the names of children whose parents opt out with health department officials to ensure clear record-keeping.
The statement called on the federal education ministry to adopt the Punjab government’s approach and make vaccination contingent on explicit parental consent. The network emphasized that medical and administrative teams must not engage in any form of harassment during campaign activities and warned that such conduct will not be accepted. Finally, they noted that a recent notification from the education department has already led to significant student absences, underscoring the need for measured implementation that addresses parental concerns.
