ISLAMABAD: The private school education, which can play an important role in enhancing the literacy rate, has been neglected in Islamabad by the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD).

CADD, which is mandated to improve the government and private sector education, has failed to bring any change to the private sector.

The division is supposed to promote the private sector education sector through its subordinate organization - the Private Educational Institution Regulatory Authority (Piera).

The authority is responsible for monitoring hundreds of private schools in which over 200,000 students are enrolled.

According to officials, Piera has been without a permanent head since June 2013 and its employees have not been paid salaries in the current fiscal year. This has put a very negative impact on their performances.

Sources told Dawn that since February 2015 no inspection of private school had been carried out while the registration of new private schools also remained stopped.

“We are just passing time. How can we perform dedicatedly when we have no idea about the future of the regulatory authority,” said an official of Piera.

Since the departure of its last permanent chairman, Atif Kiani, in June 2013, CADD has been running Piera on an ad hoc basis with a number of its officers enjoying the status of the chairman.

At present, a grade 21 officer of CADD, senior joint secretary Rukhsana Rehman, is looking after the authority. Sources said the chairman Piera was a grade 20 post and cannot be given to a grade 21 officer on a temporary basis.

“I agree there is some technical lacuna in posting of a grade 21 officer on a grade 20 post but we did it just to run the affairs of Piera which is an important regulatory authority,” said Additional Secretary CADD Qaisar Majeed Malik.

Mr Malik, who is also the official spokesperson for CADD, added that a summary had been forwarded to the Establishment Division for the appointment of a permanent Piera head. “This impression is wrong that CADD has failed to improve the private school education. We are doing our best to promote the sector,” he claimed.

On the other hand, the owners of around 2,000 private schools (both registered and unregistered) in the federal capital are running their institutions on their own will as so far Piera could not make any formula for fee, syllabus and teachers’ appointment.

A source in Piera told Dawn that there were dozens of schools in the capital where matriculate people were also working as teachers.

He said currently there were only 1,022 registered schools while the number of unregistered institutions was in hundreds.

“Actually, the private school education has become a profitable business. There are a number of businessmen who are also running schools. A complete audit of all the schools should be held,” he said.

When contacted, Dr Afzal Babar, the president of the Private School Network, said Piera had failed to deliver. “The headless body has failed to meet its target. It was formed for the registration, regulation and promotion of private schools but unfortunately it failed on all the fronts,” he said and requested CADD to improve the functioning of Piera.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2015

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