LAHORE: Most of medium-to-low-cost private schools across the country are in dire need of improvement for better operational and institutional governance, according to a report released by the School Assessment for School Improvement (SASI) on Wednesday.

Based on a six-dimensional evaluation of more than 130 private schools across the country, the report also recommended improvements in terms of governance and strategy, performance of students and teachers, besides classroom observation, parents’ engagement and financial performance.

Speaking at the launch of the report, an initiative of Idara-i-Taleem-o-Aagahi (ITA), in collaboration with Ilm Ideas, DFID Education Advisor Javed Ahmed Malik said Punjab government should encourage medium and low-cost private schools to increase enrollment to achieve the objectives of Right to Education Act.

He said the report’s findings should be brought in public discourse to improve the quality of education being imparted in private schools.

Mr Malik said the SASI and Pakistan Alliance for Independent Schools (PAIS) should play an active role in regulating private schools as well as supporting the regulatory bodies to come up with feasible legislation.

Mentioning that almost 77 percent of private schools were charging fee from Rs500 to Rs1,000, the Mr Malik said the provincial government should replicate the model through the Punjab Education Foundation, instead of continuing spending around Rs1,400 per child in middle and secondary public sector schools – without producing substantive results.

ITA Director Programmes Dr Baela Raza Jamil said the LCPS sector had multiplied across the country and taking care of education to the children from low-income strata of society. However, she said, in the absence of a proper monitoring and evaluation system, the challenge of educational inequity due to quality and access gaps was significant.

In order to fill this gap, she said, the SASI initiative started assessing the critical needs, efficiency and effectiveness requirements of a particular school since 2012 and now offering options to address those issues.

Meanwhile, the PAIS organised a round-table conference that was attended by 36 associations from across the country.

SASI programme manager Maheen Qureshi, Punjab Private Schools Association president Dr Ilyas Wali and Starfish national director Anser Javed also spoke.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2015

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