Parent-teacher syndicate

During the last couple of years, there has been an unprecedented stream of news in the Pakistani media about pitched legal battles between parents, private educational institutions and regulatory authorities. However, what is perhaps the most socially significant court judgment on this issue has so far received little or no comment.

The background is that in 2016, PEIRA, the regulator of private schools in Islamabad, enacted a set of 28 rules called the Registration and Fee Determination Rules, 2016. The rules laid down a registration requirement for schools, a formula for regulation of the fee structure of schools and a formula for regulation of the terms and conditions of service of teachers. Crucially, there was also a rule which made it mandatory for all schools to set up a Parent Teacher Syndicate.

As soon as the rules came out, a number of private schools rushed to court. They argued that the rules violated the Islamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2013. They also argued that the rules represented an unjust curtailment of the schools’ right to businesses secured by Article 18 of the constitution.

On January 19, 2018, Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court struck down each and every one of the rules. It was a resounding success for the private schools. The judgment has been reported as Educational Services Pvt. Limited VERSUS Federation of Pakistan (Writ Petition No 2777 of 2016).

While the court’s judgment can be critiqued on various counts, perhaps the most unfortunate legacy of the judgment is that it nipped at its inception the idea of a Parent Teacher Syndicate (PTS). Under Rule 27 of the impugned rules, every private school was required to set up a PTS. The PTS would consist of representatives of parents, to be elected by parents themselves. The principal or head of the institution would act as secretary to the PTS and would be responsible for arranging at least one meeting of the PTS every month.

The mandate of the PTS was vast: to review disciplinary action against students, address the grievances of teachers regarding their service matters, help the management in performance evaluation of teachers, and make recommendations (if necessary) on issues relating to school-leaving certificates, refund of security and admission fees etc. Furthermore, the PTS was meant to be an internal dispute resolution forum. Only where the PTS failed to resort a dispute would it be adjudicated by PIERA

The court held that “Rule 27 providing for creation of Parent Teacher Syndicate and empowering it to perform various functions, is ultra vires the Act and also is impractical and unreasonable, hence is struck down.” The court’s formal legal argument seems to be that making the PTS mandatory amounts to “creation of a parallel management”, something which cannot be done through rules alone; it would require primary legislation. If the court had stopped at this, its decision would be somewhat understandable. But the Court actually went much further and added held that the very concept of the PTS is both “impractical” and “unreasonable”.

In my humble opinion, this reflects a total lack of appreciation for modern school governance practices. The rule regarding the PTS was, in fact, one of the most progressive initiatives in education policy introduced in this country over the last few years. It still remains a much needed intervention in the educational milieu of Pakistan.

The idea of a PTS dates back to over a 100 years and represents a pillar of modern school governance. In 1897, Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst founded the National Congress of Mothers. In 1908, the organization changed its name to the National Parent Teacher Association. Since then, the idea has been replicated in many countries. In the US, all education institutions that have a PTS or PTA are part of the National Parent Teacher Association. The basic mission of the National Parent Teacher Association is to make every child’s potential a reality by involving and empowering parents to advocate for all children. In the UK, over 90 percent of primary schools have a PTA or equivalent. Even India is aware of the importance of a PTS in schools and the government has run initiatives to promote this idea.

Because the legal regime governing private schools in Pakistan does not provide for Parent Teacher Syndicates, parents generally have no influence over, nor any responsibility for, policy matters of the school. Parents have no role in the designing of curriculum, hiring of teachers, pedagogy and extracurricular activities. Instead, school managers increasingly see parents as ‘clients’, teachers as ‘workers’ and pupils as ‘raw material’. In this ‘factory model’ of education, the only role expected of parents is to dutifully pay the fees demanded, while the only role expected of teachers is to perform the limited teaching and evaluation tasks specifically assigned to them by the managers.

Evidence shows that this factory model is inherently unsuited for the field of education. It lies at the root of the dissatisfaction that many parents and teachers now feel with schools, even though parents are paying ever higher fees, teachers are earning better salaries, pupils are obtaining higher grades. It is much better to conceive private education as a joint venture between parents, teachers and schools managers for the common object of educating society’s children. Seen this way, education is not about the production of services in return for money. Instead, it is about bringing a community of teachers, pupils and parents together.

When education is seen in this context, it is only logical to feel the need to set up a forum where parent, teachers and school managers can regularly sit together, strategize and make joint decisions. This would in fact be a parallel model of school governance, and a much needed one.

A lot of educationists propose that in order to improve the education system in Pakistan, we need to focus on building better adequate school facilities, curriculum development and teacher training. No doubt that these reforms important, but no less significant is the need for reforming the structure of school governance. This is where Parent Teacher Syndicates can play a major role.

The author is an independentresearcher in education policy and has worked at Adam SmithInternational.

Email: sanat980@gmail.com