Education regulator yet to be appointed despite protests by parents

ISLAMABAD: As parents throughout the country are protesting against the exorbitant fee and hidden charges imposed by the private schools, the government is still paying no heed towards the sufferings of the people who are left on the mercy of private school mafia.
Even the so-called Private Education Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) is headless for more than two years and government is in no haste to appoint its regular chairman. The regulatory body is working without a regular head since June 2013.
A well-placed source in Ministry of Establishment Division informed The News that Ministry of Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) sent requisition for the appointment of chairman Peira however there were some procedural lacunas.
There were some lacunas in the recruitment rules for the appointment of the chairman Peira and the Establishment Division wrote back to CADD for removing these lacunas and amend the rules.
When contacted, Additional Secretary CADD Qaisar Majeed Malik told The News that the ministry has received some complaints against the undue hike in fee by the private schools. He said the ministry would take up this issue at highest level. However, because of absence of regular head of Peira the ministry could not take any effective steps against the private schools.
He said the ministry has sent requisitions for the appointment of chairman Peira twice but due to some procedural lacunas it could not be filled. Soon the post would be filled by a regular head of the authority, he commented.
Asked despite the passage of more than two years why the ministry has failed to appoint a regular head, he said he would discuss the matter during the meeting with top officials of the ministry.
When asked whether ministry has amended the recruitment rules for the appointment of chairman Peira, Qisar said that no amendment has been made yet. However, he said they have requested the Establishment division that by the time the rules are amended the ministry should approve the appointment of Chairman Peira.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Captain (R) Mushtaq Ahmed said they too have received complaints from the parents but the office of the deputy commissioner could not do anything in the presence of CADD.
“After receiving complaints from the parents we have summoned a meeting with private schools owners and in the light of this meeting we would forward the suggestions and recommendations to CADD,” commented Ahmed.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the absence of any regulatory body, there is no check and balance and neither any authority to check the standards of education despite charging hefty amounts in the form of school fee by private schools.
According to sources majority of the private schools hire matriculate persons as teachers and there is no proper mechanism for the salary of these teachers. Majority of the private schools paying just few thousand rupee salary to these teachers whereas they are charging heft amounts in term of fee from the students. On the other hand no criterion for increasing the salaries of the teachers and their training has been chalked out despite increasing school fee on regular basis. The parents of the students who are currently running the protest campaign against the undue fee hike by the private schools is demanding the government to appoint someone like Ayesha Mumtaz as head of PEIRA so that they could regulate and monitor the quality of education being provided by these schools.
It is important to note here that CADD through its subordinate organization PEIRA is mandated for monitoring hundreds of private schools in which over 200,000 students are enrolled. However the current series of protests organized by the parents suggests that the ministry has failed to regulate the private schools as the division is supposed to promote the quality education in the private sector education.
According to sources in Peira, the regulatory body has not carried out any inspection of private schools since February 2015 whereas the authority has also stopped the process of registration of new private schools.
The parents are not only protesting in the ICT but the protest campaign is being run countrywide and the provincial governments too have failed to regulate the private schools as there is no check and balance on these schools.
The Competition Commission of Pakistan although has initiated an inquiry, however, after broadening the scope of the inquiry it might take some time to finalise the investigation. The parents want the government to take action against private schools immediately following the footsteps of someone like Ayesha Mumtaz.