PESHAWAR, Feb 4: Even though an ordinance was promulgated more than five years ago to regulate the functioning of private educational institutions in the NWFP, no improvement has been seen because the law is yet to be properly enforced, educationists told Dawn.

To put brakes on the mushroom growth of private educational institutions in the NWFP, the governor on Oct 15, 2001, promulgated an ordinance with a view to curtailing the growing trend of educational institutions in the private sector without fulfilling the prescribed rules for the same.

An official of the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) said that they had issued several warnings to owners of private schools regarding the implementation of the ordinance but to no avail.

He said that whenever the students from these schools sought migration, they would not be issued No Objection Certificates (NOCs).

The ordinance, the North-West Frontier Province Registration and Functioning of Private Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2001, was supposed to pave the way to streamline, supervise and regulate the functioning of private educational institutions in the province, had not been implemented despite the passage of six years. The provincial government is to make required rules for carrying out the ordinance. Nor has it constituted a regulatory authority to make desired regulations for conducting its business.

According to a senior educationist, the NWFP government was too much preoccupied with other matters and had no time to regulate the functioning of private educational institutions. As a result, the number of private educational institutions grew by leaps and bounds and at present every small locality or village had at least a dozen such outfits which worked without any legal authority, he further said, adding that on the one hand the government was making tall claims to eliminate the institutions which had been established illegally and on the other its functionaries and ministers were attending functions of these institutions as chief guests.

Another educationist said the poor performance of the government-run schools, colleges and universities had paved the way for private institutions to flourish. The people at large, he pointed out, had lost confidence in the state-run institutions and preferred to enrol their offspring in private institutions.

“I put my son in one of the well-reputed private schools in the city but the tuition, library and admission fees were increased there every now and then, which was beyond my affordability,” said Jamal Khan. According to him, he put his son in another school but the situation there was no different.

The ordinance also provides for the fee structure, syllabus, uniform, pay scale and qualification of teachers, library, laboratory, playground and the area required for establishment of an educational institute in the private sector which if implemented in letter and in spirit would bring much-needed reforms in the education sector.

“There are institutes claiming to have got foreign qualified teachers, computers and best environment but they are functioning in three-room set-up. The poor and gullible students are being fleeced there without any fear of action by the government,” said a retired university teacher.

According to him, establishing private schools had become a useful business where there was no risk of loss.

The ordinance also prohibits setting up of schools, colleges and universities in the name of reputed national and international institutions unless they are authorised branches of those institutions and are duly approved by the regulatory authority.