PESHAWAR, May 18: Despite the promulgation of an ordinance by the provincial government last year to streamline, supervise and regulate the functioning of private educational institutions in the NWFP, it is yet to be implemented, educationists told Dawn here on Saturday.

Taking exception to the mushrooming growth of the private educational institutes in the NWFP, the provincial governor on Oct 15, 2001, promulgated an ordinance with a view to curtail the growing trend of establishing educational institutions in private sector without fulfilling the prescribed rules for the same.

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 the private educational institutions in this part of the world, had not been implemented despite the passage of six months. 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 these 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 the 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 the private institutions to flourish. The people at large, he pointed out, had lost confidence in the state-run institutions and preferred to enrol their offsprings in private institutions.

“I put my son in one of the well-reputed private schools in the city but the tuition, library and admission fee were increased there every now and then, which was beyond my affordability,” said Mohammad Ali. 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 private sector which if implemented in letter and spirit would bring much-needed reforms in education sector.

“There are institutes claiming to have got foreign qualified teachers, computers and best environments but they are functioning in three-room setup. 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. But, there is no regulatory authority to look into such cases, and scores of schools and colleges in the provincial metropolis and elsewhere in the province are luring the people by using the names of reputed institutions.

Besides the high tuition fee charged at the privately-established institutions, the textbooks of these schools are also expensive. Many of the schools do not have libraries, laboratories and playgrounds for which the fee are charged from the students.

These schools appoint the young jobless youths as teachers against paltry salaries. There are no service rules or scales for the teachers and their services are terminated by a single stroke of pen.

The situation in rural areas of the province is more pathetic. The people there are lured by the institutions with wrong information for pecuniary gains.

There was a dire need to regulate the functioning of the private schools, colleges and universities, said a professor at the Government Degree College, Peshawar. According to him, it was the responsibility of the government to put brakes on the growing number of educational institutions to save the people from being fleeced by fake outlets.