Private schools protest fee rules, other issues

PESHAWAR: The private schools on Monday launched a two-day protest against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority (KP PSRA) notification on fees and other issues.

Most of the private schools remained closed and the closure will continue today (Tuesday). President of the Hub of Private Education (HOPE), one of the main bodies of the private schools associations, Aqeel Razaq, told The News that the PSRA’s notification was illegal.

He said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly has passed the Private Schools Regularity Authority Act 2017 that allowed 10 per cent yearly raise in fee. Aqeel Razaq claimed the act stated that first child would pay full fee while the remaining siblings would get 20 per cent discount in the school. It has no mention of receiving fee during holidays, he added.

Aqeel Razaq said that despite clear mention of raise in the act, the PSRA had now issued a notification directing schools not to raise fee and allowed 50 per cent discount while the holidays fee had been fixed at half of the original rate.

“We cannot accept this notification and announced protest against it. Our demands are not illegal. These are within the country’s law,” he added.Regarding the fee issue, he said the act had mentioned categorisation of schools. They should categorise the schools and then set the fee limits for different categories. But they should not implement similar rules on all private schools.

He said the government was collecting 12 different taxes from private schools. He claimed that these schools were providing education to six million children.None of the government schools is in the top 20 in the results of the boards that show that private sector is providing quality education. 

He questioned the Independent Monitoring Unit (IMU) visits to private schools, saying that IMU had failed to improve the conditions in state-run schools. He said that IMU’s monitoring was for evaluating the teaching at private schools.

Aqeel Razaq said the private schools also wanted an educationist to head the district scrutiny committee, saying that a bureaucrat had no capacity to evaluate education system. He said that Balochistan had not yet implemented the Regulatory Authority Act while other provinces were yet to pass a similar act and added that private schools accepted the act despite reservations.

Aqeel Razaq said that private schools’ input had been included in the legislation process but claimed that their input was not included in the 300-page rules of the regularity authority. He said the government was discouraging people from investing in the private education.

Parliamentary leader of the Awami National Party (ANP) in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Sardar Hussain Babak, who was minister for education during the ANP government, told The News that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was doing political point-scoring. Its solo flight to gain cheap popularity and lust for getting credit for what they claim a large number of legislation is not a good precedence, he claimed.

CHARSADDA: All the 571 private educational institutions remained closed against the government policies. The private schools owners held a protest camp outside the Charsadda Press Club. The protesters said that the government anti-education policies were targeting private sector which was providing quality education. They said the government was violating the Private Schools Regulatory Authority Act 2017.

NOWSHERA:  The Private Education Network (PEN) held a protest against the monitoring by the district monitoring officers. The network declared the education policies of the government detrimental to the education sector in the province. They said the government should have taken private schools management into the confidence before forming education policies.

MINGORA: The private educational institutions remained closed on the first day of the two-day strike against what they termed the interference of the non-governmental organisations in the government policies.

All Private Schools Management Association provincial president Sawab Khan and general secretary Nisar Ahmed led the protest march from Grassy Ground to Swat Press Club. The protesters said that they were against the government unilateral policies aimed at jeopardizing the education in private sector.

MANSEHRA: The owners of private educational institutions took to the streets to protest against what they said crush education policies of the PTI-led provincial government. The protesters marched on the Chakia Road and raised slogans against government and in support of their demands.

HANGU: The private schools owners in Hangu district also protested the government policies. The protesters said that they were not charging huge fees.

LAKKI MARWAT: The heads and owners of private schools also held a protest demonstration in Lakki city against appointment of IMU district monitoring officer as head of district scrutiny committee for registration and renewal of private schools.

The protesters took out a rally from a private school located near Faqeeran graveyard in Mohallah Haqdad Abad and they marched on Tajazai Darra Tang and old Kutchehry Road.