Dirpis to impose heavy fines on schools violating closure orders

Over the continuous violations of the Sindh government’s orders for keeping the educational institutions closed to avoid the coronavirus spread, the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions (Dirpis) Sindh has planned to impose fines ranging between Rs50,000 and Rs100,000 on the school owners who opened their schools for either the collection of monthly fees or administrative dealings.

This week, Dirpis officials revoked registrations of around 23 schools after finding that they were opened despite the clear closure orders. The Dirpis inspection teams also warned around 19 administrators of privately managed schools to keep the schools closed.

“We have already ordered the Dirpis director general to impose fines on privately managed schools that violate the provincial government orders,” said Zubair Memon, media coordinator of the Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani, adding that the education minister had conveyed a message to the home department for activating police against the owners of the schools that did not take the government order serious.

Memon mentioned that the police had lodged FIRs against some of the school owners last week. Likewise, the department had authorised the commissioners of relevant areas to impose the education department rules and take action against the violators.

Dirpis Registrar Rafia Javed told The News that the inspection teams on Saturday through telephone calls forced around seven school administrators to keep their schools shut. She said continuous violations of the government order was a very alarming situation. “We are again and again contacting the school owners telling them not to open schools. But we are frequently receiving complaints against schools located in underdeveloped areas.”

She said Dirpis and the education department officials on Saturday discussed the matter of schools being opened in detail and it was decided that Dirpis would now impose fines ranging from Rs50,000 to Rs100,000 on the school owners who open their schools for any reason.

A day earlier on Friday, Dirpis had found out that eight private schools were functioning in various areas of Karachi. Rafia said that after receiving complaints, their inspection teams visited the eight schools located in different areas of the city and the registration of four of them was revoked by the directorate. She said the registration of one school had already expired, and its case had been forwarded to the Dirpis director general for action against the school owner. She added that the other three schools had only called the non-teaching staff and were warned to shut.