July 12, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 11: The education ministry has asked the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to justify its action of sealing some private educational institutions and serving notices on the management of others.

An official source told Dawn that the federal education minister, Zobaida Jalal, was taking personal interest in this issue and had called a meeting of senior officials of the CDA and the Federal Directorate of Education on Monday.

The school administrations as well as parents of the schoolchildren have expressed their concern over the closure of private educational institutions.

The CDA has taken action against 86 schools located in different residential areas of the capital, out of which 11 have been sealed.

There are 710 schools in the capital out of which 420 are in the public sector and 290 in the private sector. Out of the 710 schools, 413 are at the primary level (264 public and 149 private), 123 at the middle level (50 government and 73 private) and 174 at the high and higher secondary level (106 public and 68 private).

The source said closing down of these institutions was in violation of a cabinet decision, in which it had been decided that no action would be taken against private schools established before 1999.

Meanwhile, a senior FDE official said CDA’s action would be a great blow to the government’s policy of encouraging private sector through public-private partnership. This policy was developed after realizing the fact that private institutions had contributed a lot to the education sector.