PESHAWAR, Nov 28: Despite the promulgation of an ordinance by the provincial government to supervise and regulate the functioning of the private educational institutions, it is yet to be implemented after two years, officials told Dawn.

In the wake of the rise in the number of private educational institutions in the NWFP, the governor on Oct 15, 2001, promulgated an ordinance with a view to curtailing the growing trend of establishing private schools in the private sector without fulfilling the prescribed rules for the same.

The ordinance, the North-West Frontier Province Registration and Functioning of Private Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2001, was supposed to streamline the functioning of the private educational institutes in the NWFP.

Neither the rules have been formed nor a regulatory authority has been constituted for conducting its business.

An educationist told Dawn that the NWFP government was busy with other matters and had no time to regulate the functioning of the private schools and institutions. As a result, the number of these institutes grew very fast and dozens of institutions have come up.

He said that on the one hand, the government was making tall claims to eliminate the institutions which had been established illegally and, on the other, its functionaries and ministers were attending the functions arranged by these schools as chief guests.

Another educational expert said that the poor performance of the government-run schools, colleges and universities had encouraged the founding of private institutions to flourish. The people at large, he pointed out, had lost confidence in the state-run institutions and preferred to enrol their offsprings in the privately-owned institutions despite its high fees.

“I put my son in one of the private schools in the city, but the tuition, library and admission fee were being increased every now and then, which was beyond my affordability,” said Azizur Rehman. According to him, he got admitted his son into another private school, but the situation was no different.

The ordinance, also provides for the fee structure, syllabus, uniform, pay-scale and qualification of the teachers, library, laboratory,  playground  and  the area  required  for  the establishment of private school, which if implemented fully would bring much-needed reforms in the education sector.

“Some of the institutions claiming to have got the services of the foreign qualified teachers, computers and best educational environments, but they are functioning in three-room buildings. The poor and gullible parents are being fleeced there without any fear of action by the government,” a retired university teacher said.

According to him, establishing private schools had become a lucrative business in which there was no risk of loss. For instance, the ordinance also prohibits setting up of schools, colleges and universities in the name of reputed national and international institutes unless they are authorized branches of those institutes and are duly approved by the regulatory authority.

There is, however, no authority to look into these cases and scores of schools, colleges and universities in the provincial metropolis and elsewhere in the province have been luring the people by using the names of famed national and international institutions.

Besides, the high fee charged at the privately-established schools, the textbooks of these institutions are also extremely expensive as compared to the government schools. Furthermore, most of these schools do not have libraries, laboratories and playgrounds for which high fee are charged from the students.

In most of the schools, the sports activities are nonexistent, whereas fee was charged from the students.

Likewise, there is no pay scale for the employees as the owners of these institutes appoint young jobless people as teachers against nominal salaries. There are no service rules and the jobs of the employees can be terminated by a single stroke of pen.

The situation in rural areas is more pathetic. The people are enticed by these schools with wrong information for profit.

A university teacher, said that it was the responsibility of the government to put brakes of the increasing number of private schools and save the people from being fleeced.