ISLAMABAD: Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) has proposed tightening regulation of private schools in the country by submitting a new set of rules before the sub-committee of National Assembly Standing Committee of Cabinet Secretariat on Wednesday.

Under the proposed rules, private schools will be bound to hire professional and qualified teachers and pay them salaries in accordance with market rates. They will also not be allowed to raise school fees on their own without permission from PEIRA.

Furthermore, a school having a land expanse of under 10 marlas will not be allowed to be registered and schools will also not be allowed to charge fees in foreign currency.

These rules were shared with the sub-committee which met at Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) with Member National Assembly (MNA)Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli in the chair.

The committee chairperson, Seema Jameeli, said majority of private school teachers are underpaid, while schools charge hefty amounts from students. Other members of the committee shared this concern.

MNA Nafeesa Khattak asked PEIRA Chairman Imtiaz Qureshi if there was any process for checking whether the teachers were certified to teach by PEIRA.

Schools will need PEIRA’s approval before increasing fees

The chairman could not provide a satisfactory response to the question. The committee discussed the proposed rules and decided to hear owners of private schools in the next meeting before finalising these rules.

The PEIRA is the regulatory authority of over 1,100 private institutions in the capital and was constituted as a result of an act passed by Parliament in March 2013. However, so far, it has been unable to finalise rules for keeping a proper check on private education.

A group of private schools’ owners led by Dr Afzal Babur, President Private School Network, also attended the meeting and showed their concerns over the working of PEIRA.

Dr Afzal told the committee that PEIRA had been receiving huge sums of money in the name of renewal of registration fees.

He told the committee that there are over 500 schools functioning illegally in Islamabad but PEIRA is not taking action against them.

Speaking to Dawn, Dr Babur demanded a special audit of PEIRA to find out where the money collected by authority had been spent.

Published in Dawn January 15th , 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play