LAHORE, July 21: The Punjab special education secretary (schools) expresses his concern that the Private Schools Ordinance 1985 has not been implemented and no action taken against unregistered schools.

Zahid Saeed said it had been noticed that some elite schools were running branches of their system by registering only one branch. It was a clear violation of the law and warranted cognizance.

He was presiding over a meeting of EDOs (education). Additional secretary education (general) Maqsood Mumtaz also attended the meeting.

The secretary schools told the meeting that the owners of private schools had lodged complaints regarding non-cooperation on the part of registration staff of district offices of the department. Owing to this reason, he said, the managers of private schools had lost their confidence in district offices.

He asked the EDOs to replace the officers having bad reputation and appoint honest and polite officials in this section. He ordered provision of registration forms printed on quality paper by the education department.

He also asked the EDOs to ensure a favourable and friendly environment in their offices by eradicating maladministration and redressing the grievances of school owners with a view to restoring their confidence in the department officials.

He also ordered them to pay salaries to senior and junior officials through banks instead of cash payment to avoid delay in payment and the risk of robberies.

With regard to the reservations of EDOs about the policy of “Maar Nahin Pyar”, he said only corporal punishment had been banned, but the teachers could use their authority to reform disobedient students as disturbance and disobedience could not be tolerated in educational institutions at any cost.