Fact-check: Posts falsely claim teacher seen arguing with Punjab CM has been fired
Samina Shahid, public school teacher whose picture went viral, has herself confirmed to Geo Fact Check that she has not been removed from her post
Updated Wednesday Mar 20 2024
Widespread posts on X (Twitter), Facebook and TikTok claim that a public school teacher was sacked after raising concerns about male security personnel accompanying the chief minister Punjab during her visit to an all-girls’ high school in Lahore, Punjab.
The claim is inaccurate. The teacher has not been dismissed.
Claim
“Breaking news,” wrote a user on X, formerly Twitter, on March 10, “The teacher who said, ‘Maryam madam, the girls are getting confused’ has been fired from her government job.”
The post has been viewed over 500,000 times, liked 12,000 times and reposted over 7,000 times, at the time of writing.
Several posts also shared screenshots from a televised visit of Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif of a girls’ high school in Lahore. During the stop-over, Sharif can be seen talking to students in a classroom, inquiring about the school’s educational standards, when a teacher argues that the young girls might be “getting confused” due to the presence of men in the latter’s security detail.
Soon after the visit, several social media users accused the chief minister of having the teacher sacked.
Similar claims were shared here and here.
Fact
Samina Shahid, the public school teacher whose picture went viral, has herself confirmed to Geo Fact Check that she has not been removed from her post. Her statement has been further corroborated by other government officials, privy to the developments.
Shahid is in fact the principal of the government pilot secondary girls school in Lahore, not a teacher as being claimed online.
“The [social media posts] are false. There is no truth to them,” Shahid told Geo Fact Check over the phone on March 15, “I am speaking to you right now sitting in my office.”
Furthermore, Pervaiz Akhtar, the chief executive officer of Lahore’s district education authority, also said that no action had been taken against any teacher from the school in question.
Azma Zahid Bokhari, the information minister in Punjab, stated the same.
“No action against any teaching or non-teaching staff has been taken by school administration after the visit of the chief minister Punjab to the government pilot girls high school Lahore,” Bokhari told Geo Fact Check via messages.
With additional reporting by Saman Amjad.
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