LAHORE, Jan 15: The education department has directed all the eight boards of intermediate and secondary education to affiliate afternoon schools and defer the recovery of security deposits from them for a year.

These afternoon schools are being operated under the Community Participation Project (CPP).

The department directed that all the CPP parties which opted for this facility might be granted provisional affiliation and recognition until they deposited the security fee within a year.

It may be mentioned that the Punjab cabinet in its meeting on Feb 26, last year had approved the scheme to invite private sector and NGOs to select government schools and start upgraded classes in the afternoon as a pilot project in Chakwal, Sargodha, Narowal and Bahwalnagar districts. After a massive feedback and evaluation of the results and experiences of the pilot project, the cabinet approved the project for the whole of the Punjab.

The Punjab cabinet in its meeting on May 28 last year had also decided that the education boards would not charge any affiliation fee from the schools registered under this scheme for five years. However, all the eight education boards continued to resist this decision, saying that their rules and regulations did not allow them to affiliate or recognize an institution without charging affiliation fee.

As the annual matriculation and first year examinations were approaching, the private parties operating over 4,600 afternoon schools all over the province were demanding that the exemption given by the cabinet as well as the education department should be implemented. They also said that the students enrolled in afternoon schools were also curious about their fate.

Considering the situation, the education department in its fresh order to all education boards’ chairmen said the boards should facilitate the CPP parties and grant affiliation and recognition without charging any money at the moment. The order said that it would help the CPP parties become fully functional and play their positive role in imparting education.

The order said that the boards had already been communicated under a cabinet decision that no affiliation fee would be charged from the upgraded schools under this scheme for a period of five years by them. Admitting that under the regulations of the boards, the CPP parties were required to deposit a refundable security with the boards prior to affiliation and recognition, the order said the project was in its infancy and needed to be encouraged to participate more effectively in the scheme.