July 03, 2006	Monday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 6, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 2: The proposed Islamabad Private Schools Regulatory Authority seems to be a distant reality, as the federal education ministry has not yet taken the bill to the parliament to make it a law.

It has been more than a year when Federal Education Minister, Lt-Gen (retd) Javed Ashraf Qazi had announced that the authority would be in place very soon. However, the setting up of the proposed authority like many other commitments which the ministers make every now and then has been put in cold storage.

The mushrooming of private schools in the capital city over the last one decade has compelled the education ministry to constitute an authority to regulate their working.

However, sources at the education ministry confided to Dawn that a powerful lobby supported by a sitting minister was against the regulation of private schools and creating unnecessary hurdles.

An agreed draft bill after thorough consultation by all the stakeholder — private school owners, parents, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration, and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) — have been prepared for quite some time.

Presently, the sources said, the bill was lying with the law ministry for vetting, and reportedly the lobby through various sources was employing delaying tactics.

Some of the private schools in the capital have a thriving business and they do not want any kind of intrusion in their affairs. Because, after the establishment of the authority, they will have to follow the proposed authority’s rules in running their institutions.

According to recent estimates the capital has around 500 private schools with an estimated enrolment of 80,000 students.

The main emphasis of the proposed body would be to regulate private schools’ fee structure, an issue which parents have been highlighting over the years but remained unheard.

If approved, fee of a private school will be determined on the basis of its facilities such as school building, labs, teaching standards, sports ground etc. Special teams after visiting a certain private school will decide so, the sources said.

And there will only be annual adjustment of their fee structures, that too according to the inflation rates determined by the State Bank of Pakistan.

However, the government would not intervene in selection of teachers by these institutions or for that matter admission of students.

About the syllabus, they have to follow national curriculum, however, if they want to add some additional subjects, the ministry would not have any objection, the sources said.

Interestingly, all the provincial governments have already laws in place to regulate private schools, an initiative which the federal government should have taken much earlier.

The Punjab government promulgated an ordinance to regulate and control the private educational institutions and later amended it in 1995. Sindh government also promulgated a similarly ordinance in 2001 and revised in 2004. The NWFP promulgated Registration and Functioning of Private Educational Institutions Ordinance in 2001. Balochistan promulgated “The Balochistan Registration of Unrecognised Educational Institutions Ordinance, 1962.

Some time back, the Capital Development Authority also launched a campaign against the private schools established in the residential areas without any permission from the authority. However, the campaign died down with the passage of time without any result.

There are a number of issues with the private schools. To charge more fees, some schools do not close even during summer vacations. Almost every private school charge three months fee at a time before summer vacations, which is not possible for salaried class parents to pay.

In most of the private schools, the students are facing a lot of difficulties as the classrooms are overcrowded, and even facilities like drinking water or electric fans, are non-existent.

Some schools work only three hours daily, which, according to parents, was a sheer waste of time. Private schools are increasing their fees on regular basis, particularly during the last few years.

The fee structures vary from school to school, and there is absolutely no uniformity. But one thing is for sure that it is unthinkable for parents, especially the salaried class, to send their children to a reputable private school. The fee structures ranges from few hundreds to thousands.

SELECTION BOARD OF HAZARA VARSITY: The selection board meeting of the Hazara University held last week. The selection board after consultation made recommendations for appointment to both administrative and faculty positions in BPS-17 and 20.

The board strictly followed the merit criteria in selecting the suitable applicants for the posts. The proceedings of the selection board were supervised by Dr Ihsan Ali, Vice-Chancellor of the university. The recommendations of the board will be placed before the syndicate for final approval.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ali said that the rest of the vacant posts would be advertised for filling soon.