LAHORE In the wake of growing resentment among general public towards unbridled working of private schools especially vis-à-vis their uncontrolled fee structure, the Punjab government has decided to set up a complaint cell in this regard on immediate basis. The government has also “warned” private schools to immediately stop increasing their respective fee structure and in this regard an important meeting of Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan with owners/representatives of leading private schools is scheduled to be held today (Tuesday). Recently a group of civil society members had held a peaceful demonstration against private schools in Islamabad as a protest over unchecked and ever-increasing fee structure of different leading private schools. On Monday, dozens of civil society members staging a protest demonstration at the provincial metropolis also strongly criticised the private schools for ever-increasing fee and fleecing parents in the name of education. The demo was held at Liberty Roundabout, in which a large number of parents of students studying in private schools participated and expressed their anger over working of the private schools especially well-established private schools. Carrying banners inscribed with slogans against private schools the demonstrators chanted slogans and demanded the government to introduce regulatory body for private schools and to cap their fee structures. It is pertinent to mention here that there is no regulatory body for private schools in Pakistan in general and in Punjab in particular and this is despite the fact that the successive governments, in Punjab especially, have been claiming to introduce the same over the years. This correspondent has been reporting, primarily on education sector, for almost a decade now. The issue regarding absence of any watchdog for private schools has been part of many reports on various occasions highlighting issues such as unchecked fee structure, mandatory purchase of books and uniforms from designated bookshops of these schools only as well as collection of different kinds of funds under various categories. It is also perhaps for the first time that civil society has taken up this issue collectively and seriously and taking to streets to press the government to intervene and stop private sector from fleecing the masses in the name of education. In its last phase of rule, the PML-Q government was quite ambitious to introduce a regulatory body on private schools. However, its efforts remained confined to meetings only and no tangible progress was later seen vis-à-vis controlling affairs of private sector schools. After the PML-N came into power in Punjab, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif formed a committee comprising educationists, MPAs and private schools representatives in late 2008 to introduce regulatory mechanism for private schools and to propose suitable amendments to the existing Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Ordinance 1984, with the view to establish standard for infrastructure, teaching staff, and adopted syllabus, curriculum and examination system of the private sector schools. Unfortunately ever since the promulgation of the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Ordinance in 1984, the law remained toothless as no rules of business could be framed for its implementation. Since 2008, the Punjab government has been working on legislation vis-à-vis private schools and recently the officials claimed on various occasions the draft law had been prepared and would be presented in the Punjab Assembly “soon”. However, this claim has yet to be materialised. When contacted, Education Minister Rana Mashhood said the government wanted to introduce a comprehensive legislation categorising private schools on the basis of fee, faculty, area and examination system etc. He said a number of amendments were made to the proposed law during the vetting process and deliberations on various occasions and claimed that the new law for private schools would be introduced almost within a month’s time. Any further amendment to the law would be made once the law was introduced, he added. Rana Mashhood said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had issued clear directions in the wake of growing agitation among the general public vis-à-vis private sector schools. He said as immediate remedy the government would establish a complaint cell where people could get registered their complaints against private schools. He said the private schools had also been directed not to increase fees forthwith. The minister also confirmed that he would be holding a meeting with owners/representatives of private schools today (Tuesday).
