PESHAWAR, Oct 15: NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah has stressed the need to encourage the private sector to play its role in the promotion of higher education in the province.

There should be no compromise on the standard and quality of educational facilities, he said while talking to the chairman and members of the newly-created Higher Education Regulatory Authority (Hera) here on Tuesday.

The governor said the authority had to shoulder great responsibilities as both the people and the government pinned high hopes in it and it must ensure that neither the people were exploited nor the students deceived.

The government, he said, had already chalked out the parameters as well as policy guidelines for the authority and now it was up to it to prove its worth.

In fact, he said, there ought not to be any ambiguity about the basic requirements by any private educational institution and no compromise be tolerated, particularly regarding the creation of faculties to protect the future of the respective students.

The authority, he remarked, had to work on war-footing not only to examine the working of the existing institutions but also to scrutinize the desirous parties and submit its recommendations at the earliest.

He also desired that there should be a checklist regarding the fulfilment of basic requirements by the intending investors in the education sector, which would prove helpful in decreasing difficulties both for the authority and the respective parties.