ISLAMABAD: A subcommittee of the National Assembly standing committee on cabinet secretariat on Tuesday gave its recommendations to bring improvement to the private education sector.

The six-member sub-committee presented its report to the standing committee of the lower house at a meeting chaired by Rana Mohammad Hayat. The committee, however, did not discuss the report and deferred it until the next meeting.

The report recommended several steps for improving the working of the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA).

The NA committee showed its displeasure over the performance of the regulatory body, saying it had failed to keep a proper check and balance on private schools’ performance and fee structure.

There was no representation of the private schools at the meeting when the committee discussed the fee issue.

Regulatory body asked to hire inspectors to strengthen its monitoring system

However, the committee was informed by the chairman and a member of PEIRA that, on the instruction of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, all the private schools had decided to readjust the enhanced fee.

PEIRA member Imtiaz Qureshi presented a list of 15 elite schools which through letters/messages had conveyed to the parents that the enhanced fee would be readjusted.

When the committee asked how a large number of schools were operating in residential areas of Islamabad, the member PEIRA blamed the CDA.

“CDA issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) to these schools for operating in houses,” the member said. However, he did not inform the committee that PEIRA had registered the schools and a majority them were not fulfilling the registration criteria.

The member said there were 1,069 registered schools in the capital out of which 353 were in urban areas.

MNA Nafeesa Khattak said several schools were functioning in small houses. She said in addition to the schools, there were around 6,000 commercial outlets operating in residential areas.

The sub-committee presented a report about the draft rules of PEIRA. In its recommendation, the sub-committee, headed by MNA Seema Mohiuddin Jameeli, directed PEIRA to take measures to stop the mushroom growth of private schools and conduct a survey to know the actual number of private schools in the capital.

The report recommended that the regulatory body should appoint inspectors to strengthen its monitoring system and ensure the inspection of each private school on a quarterly basis. The regulatory body was also asked to establish a task force, comprising parliamentarians and officials of PEIRA and health department, to monitor the performance of the schools.

The private schools should also enter into an agreement with teachers at the time of their appointment to ensure their job protection and salary package.

The sub-committee also directed the regulatory body to display its rules in every school for the information of the parents.

“PEIRA may take effective measures to stop night activities of all private schools and ensure private schools may award 10 per cent scholarships to the students and reserve five per cent special seats for special students.”

Earlier, the NA standing committee also discussed the civil servants status of the employees of parliament. The secretary establishment and the secretary law were of the opinion that the employees of Senate and National Assembly, under the Civil Servant Act 1973, could not be declared as civil servants rather they were government servants.

However, a representative of the parliament employees contended that they fell under the ambit of the civil servant rules. The committee referred the matter till the next meeting.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2015

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