PESHAWAR, Jan 13: An ordinance promulgated by the NWFP government to supervise and regulate the functioning of private educational institutions is yet to be implemented even after several years of its promulgation, officials told Dawn.

Taking notice of the mushrooming of private educational institutions in the NWFP, the governor on October 15, 2001, had promulgated an ordinance to curtail the growing trend of establishing private schools without fulfilling prescribed rules.

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

An educationist told Dawn that the NWFP government had no time to regulate the functioning of private schools and institutions. He said that the government was making tall claims to close down the institutions that had been established illegally, but its functionaries and ministers were attending functions arranged by these schools as chief guests.

People at large, he pointed out, had lost confidence in the state-run institutions and preferred to enrol their offspring in the private institutions despite high fees.

The ordinance also sets criteria for fee structure, syllabus, uniform, pay-scale and qualification of teachers besides library, laboratory, playground and other facilities required for establishing a private school. If implemented properly it would bring much-needed reform in the education sector.

"Some of the institutions who claim of having the services of foreign qualified teachers and of providing the best educational environment are in fact functioning in three-room apartments," a retired university teacher said.

No wonder then that establishing private schools had become a lucrative business, he said. The ordinance also prohibits schools, colleges and universities to use names of reputed national and international institutions unless they are authorized branches of those institutions.

There is, however, no authority to look into these cases either. Many schools, colleges and universities in Peshawar and elsewhere in the province are luring people by using names of famous national and international institutions.

These schools are charging high fees and the textbooks they use are extremely expensive. Despite charging high fees, these institutions do not even have libraries, or laboratories or playgrounds.

To keep their expenses under the head of salaries to the minimum, these institutions hire jobless people who are even willing to work for very low salaries. There are no service rules or job security. The situation in rural areas is even more pathetic. People are enticed by these schools with false promises.