LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly was told on Monday that a law will be soon introduced to rein in private educational institutes vis-à-vis their fees and syllabus.

Punjab Education Minister Dr Murad Rass said during the Question Hour on education that the government has decided to enact a law to bring private educational institutes under its purview regarding their fees, uniforms, syllabus and other issues. The proposed law would bar them from charging exorbitant fees.

He further said had the law been in place the teacher who sexually harassed students in an elite private school would have been behind bars instead of apologising for his act.

The minister lamented that the PML-N remained in power for 10 consecutive years in the province, but did not enact any law for regulating private educational institutes, adding that the PTI government should be credited for paying attention to this important issue.

Responding to a question, he said that as long as the coronavirus pandemic continued, the private schools will have to charge 20 per cent less fee. So far, the department had fined 36 schools on various counts as managements of those schools were found selling face masks to students, he claimed.

The minister told a questioner that 42,000 books containing provocative content had been removed from the market and the publishers blacklisted.

He said the government would deal with those who published hateful and provocative material with an iron hand as a law in this regard was also in the offing.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2020