KARACHI, Jan 14: The district coordination officers (DCOs) will head the appellate boards, which will be set up at all the districts of the province, to settle disputes between parents, teachers and management of the private schools.

The provincial education secretary, Nazar Hussain Mehar, told Dawn on Monday that the government would shortly notify the formation of the appellate boards supposed to look into the grievances of the parents and the school managements, as required under the newly-promulgated Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance-2001.

He said the appellate boards would be headed by respective DCOs, while representatives of the local community, NGOs, parents and senior educationists would be included as its members.

To a question, he clarified that the district officer private education would work as the registering authority in the private educational institutions in Karachi and Hyderabad, while directors of primary, secondary schools and colleges would be responsible for processing the applications regarding registration of schools and colleges in other districts of the province. Registration, he said, would be granted with the approval of the concerned Executive District Officers (EDOs).

Meanwhile, the provincial education minister, Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, on Monday, held a meeting with the representatives of the private schools management at her office to hear their points of view on the newly-promulgated ordinance. The private sector was told that those private schools which were already registered with the authorities would not be required to apply as afresh for the registration.

Sources privy to the meeting said that there was no need of a fresh inspection of schools already registered, but those would be required to surrender their old registration documents at a counter, to be set up by the Sindh education department, following which they would be issued fresh registration certificates without any further proceedings.

It was also pointed out that the education department was also moving a summary to the governor, urging him to order for charging a non-commercial utility tariff in the case of private educational institutions, said chairman of the All-Private School Management Association, Syed Khalid Shah, who was invited to attend the meeting.