KARACHI, Feb 21: A delay on the part of the Sindh education department regarding the issuance of some notifications is adding to the problems of students of privately managed schools, said sources in the academic circle.
Despite a passage of considerable time, the department has so far not been able to notify rules pertaining to registration of private schools and orders in regard to changes made in the academic calendar.
Any further delay in the matters could ultimately affect the students and their parents, added the source, saying that the district or provincial governments were not clear over some issues in the absence of rules.
After a lapse of considerable time - only a month back - new rules pertaining to registration of privately managed educational institutions in the province were finalized after vetting by the provincial law department for approval by the chief minister.
The drafted rules are due to be notified by the education department in exercise of powers conferred by the Sindh Private Educational Institution (Regulation and Control) (Amendment) Act 2003.
A source privy to the preparation of rules said that under the proposed rules, private educational institutions would be required to follow the government approved curricula, admission policy and fee structure.
It is likely that the power to register private schools and maintain control over them would lie with the district education officers, while colleges and institutions of higher learning and technical education would be monitored by the provincial education department.
The private management would also be required to grant full free-ships to 10 per cent of the total strength of students in its educational institutions, in addition to the concessions it allows to deserving and meritorious students.
Among other requirements, the private school management shall also be required to constitute a parent-teacher association comprising representatives of teachers, parents and management.
In the meantime, about six months back, the Sindh education department had announced that it would directly regulate private educational institution in the city, asking officers of the city government's education wing not to handle matters pertaining to such institutions in the future. However, no substantial development could be observed after the announcement, and literally the private schools and parents of the students studying there did not know who the right people to take care of them were.
Only recently, the Sindh education department appointed a director for its private educational institution section, said a source, asking how the official would be able to exercise any power in the absence of rules.
It was learnt that private managements had been approaching the city and the Sindh governments' education departments with regard to the new registration of schools or renewal of registration, but they were not attended to and guided properly, as officials of both governments were themselves unclear about their functions as far as private institutions were concerned.
On the other hand, parents were complaining about the alleged fleecing by private schools with regard to fees as summer vacations approached near. Parents said that schools had demanded payment of fees of June and July in advance. However, a more disturbing aspect was that schools were demanding fees up to May from the students of class X, who would be taking the board annual examinations in April and were likely to end their studies at schools latest by March.
When EDO Education (Schools) Aijaz Ali Khan was contacted, he said he personally felt that private schools should not charge tuition fees from class X students for the months beyond March.
A private school management association was of the view that its member schools would hold the annual exams in March like in the past year, as they did not find any moral ground to charge fees of 14 months in one academic session.
In the absence of any notification, there was a lot of confusion, in schools, said a senior education official. When contacted, the Sindh education secretary, Hashim Leghari, said the decisions taken by the steering committee would be notified soon after approval by the competent authority. He said there was no retreat on the issue of changes in the academic calendar.
