PESHAWAR: After a delay of over two and a half years, the Elementary and Secondary Education (E&SE) Department has finally prepared draft of a law for regulating private educational institutions, which is likely to be placed for approval of the cabinet next week, according to sources.

The proposed bill is almost replica of the bill tabled by the previous Awami National Party-led government in the provincial assembly in 2012, sources in the E&SE Department told Dawn. The previous government couldn’t pass the bill till end of its tenure due pressure from the strong lobby of private schools in the province, the sources said.

They said that the slow speed with which the incumbent government was moving to establish a regulatory authority for private schools showed that the current bill could also meet the same fate.

In the present draft bill, a clause regarding fee concession for siblings has been deleted. Clause 27 of the previous bill states: “Every school shall make concession in fee to two or more brothers and sisters studying in the same school or in different schools under the same management or administration or owners, at such rates as the regulatory authority may prescribe.”

A similar bill could not be passed in 2012 due to strong lobby of private schools

Section 8 of the present draft bill states that the regulatory authority shall register and regulate schools, supervise their curricula, scheme of studies, fee structure, academic schedules, co-curricular activities and ensure observance of vacations of summer, winter, spring and other holidays in schools as being observed by the public sector schools.

In the absence of an effective regulatory authority, the private schools charge high tuition fee, increase different fee frequently at their will, pay meagre salaries to teachers, have no criteria of teachers’ appointment and their termination and many other issues, the sources said.

They said that presently all the private educational institutions were supervised by the toothless regulatory authorities established on the level of each of the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education in the province.

The draft bill also empowers the regulatory authority to formulate policy, guiding principles and criteria for the establishment and registration of schools for supplementing public sector investment in education.

If established, the sources said, the regulatory authority would also determine minimum qualification, training, service and pay structure for teachers in private schools.

The authority would have powers to categorise schools on the basis of quality of education and facilities provided thereof for the purpose of fixation of different fee structures to be implemented by them. It will also prescribe training programmes for teachers and monitor their implementation.

Under the proposed authority, divisional and district scrutiny committees would be set up to carry out inspections of schools to assess and report on their feasibility and functioning.

The regulatory authority would consist of minister E&SE as its chairperson and secretary and director of E&SE as its members besides two members each from the private schools, the parents, and educationists/philanthropists.

In addition to annual meeting, the regulatory authority shall meet once a quarter on such a day, time and place as the chairperson may determine or on the request of half of its members.

The proposed bill states that whoever opens or operates a school without registration with the regulatory authority shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with a fine of Rs200,000 or both in case of high, higher secondary school and intermediate college or an institution of equivalent level.

The Peshawar High Court had directed the previous and present provincial governments on several occasions to enact a law for regulating the affairs of private educational institutions. The court had observed that the private educational institutions had been minting money from students, but the government had failed to check them.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2016