KARACHI, March 24: The education department of the city government has reopened the dates for fresh registration of privately-managed educational institutions.
According to a notification of the department on Monday, unregistered institutions should submit their applications along with relevant documents by April 10. The decision is aimed at registering all those institutions which have deliberately been avoiding the process, said a senior official of the department.
The city government’s registration drive, launched about five months ago, could attract only half of the private schools for either fresh registration or renewal of the old registration letters issued before the promulgation of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001.
Under the ordinance, private schools are required to get fresh registration or renewal for running an institution in the province. However, the rules could not be implemented immediately and the private educational institutions were invited for registration only late in the year 2002.
Sources in the education department claimed that about 3,000 private educational institutions are operating in the city but so far about 1,700 have applied for registration or renewal of the same. The department has so far issued about 1,250 certificates while 450 cases are under process.
The poor response was due to the apprehension that the government wanted to tighten the noose around the private schools gradually. Some of the major institutions and majority of the “below average standard” were avoiding registration with one pretext or another and now trying to overturn the process through lobbying in the political quarters, said sources.
Under the 2001 ordinance, educational institutions are required to provide proper teaching/learning facilities to all students and hire professionally trained teachers for all compulsory and optional subjects.
“The charges/funds collected by an institution other than the fees shall be approved by the registering authority at the time of registration. The charges/funds structure, so approved, shall retain its proportional values with the fee structure changed by the institution in current and preceding sessions.”
The schools are also required to allow freeship to 10 per cent of the total students enrolled on the basis of need-cum-merit basis. The institutions shall not terminate the services of any staff or expel any student without approval of the registering authority.
The education department said that the “one-window” procedure for registering the private educational institutions has been established in the office of the Executive District Officer (education) at the Civic Centre. The applicants have been asked to submit all relevant papers with the applications for instant verification.
The education department also clarified that registration certificates issued under the seal and signature of any outgoing EDO (education) would not need any validation and shall be acceptable for all practical purposes.
After April 10, the notification added, action would be initiated against the defaulters under the private educational institutions ordinance.
The department has also directed the schools already registered under the ordinance to ensure strict implementation of the conditions of the registration.
