PESHAWAR, Sept 26: The National Education Council, a body of private sector schools, has urged the government not to reimpose the term deposit receipts (TDR) and inspection fee and said that 10,000 private schools will suffer from such a decision.

Speaking at a news conference here at the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday, NEC general secretary Nazar Hussain said that the TDR was a burden on private schools.

He said in the past, intermediate boards used to receive a fixed amount of Rs 10,000 from each unit of private schools under TDR system. The boards deposited this amount in banks for a period of 10 t0 15 years, but neither boards nor the education department could use this amount, he added.

He said a former governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah being controlling authority of intermediate boards had abolished it in November 2003. He said the NEC had apprised him that the TDR had no use as it was not used by anyone.

Similarly, boards used to charge Rs 6,000 from the NEC members in the name of inspection of schools and the governor also abolished it, Mr Hussain added.

He said now the Committee of Board Chairmen had decided to restore the TDR and sent notices to private schools to deposit this amount, otherwise they would not get their renewal.

He said it was an unwise decision on the part of the authorities. He asked the NWFP government to take notice of it and ask the boards to withdraw notices. He observed that if the boards were unable to utilise this amount, why was it being levied on private schools.

He said each intermediate board was bound to induct four elected representatives of high schools and colleges (headmistress, head master, principal of boys college and principal of girls college) in its committee, but none of the boards except the Abbottabad board, had held elections for the four school-college representatives. The board officials usually would select their own people for the purpose, which was unfair, he added.

He demanded of the NWFP chief minister being controlling authority of boards to order the administrations of secondary education and intermediate boards to hold the elections for the school-college representative, withdraw notices of TDR and inspection fee and ensure academic freedom at private schools.

Answering a question, he clarified that private schools were not bound to write off the fee of one of two brothers and sisters enrolled at a private school.

According to the Article 106 of the Education Code, 1935, only children of teachers were entitled to avail this facility. He said the NWFP education department had issued a wrong directive in this regard, he added.

He, however, said that the government could make fresh legislation in this regard in the larger interest of the people.