LAHORE, Sept 26: Punjab Social Security Commissioner Tahir Raza Naqvi has said medical facilities and fringe benefits will be provided to teachers and employees of private schools drawing salaries up to Rs5,000 per month.
The commissioner was talking to an eight-member delegation of All Pakistan Private Schools Welfare Association (APPSWA) led by president Syed Zulqernain Shah, who called on him here on Tuesday.
In the light of recent decision of Supreme Court, he said the private schools had now been included in social security net.
According to a news release issued by the APPSWA, the commissioner said the government had already increased its ceiling from Rs3,000 to Rs5,000 per month salary so that more employees could be benefited from the social security service.
He said the government was spending Rs2.32 billion under the head of social security every year.
The commissioner said any employee could get a number of benefits by paying Rs10,000 per annum that comes to Rs883 per month.
By paying this meager amount, he said, the social security provided full medical cover ranging up to thousands of rupees as well as one-year full pay in special cases.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the All Pakistan Private Schools Associations (APPSA) on Tuesday formed an All Pakistan Private Schools Joint Action Committee and elected Mirza Kashif Ali as its chairman. Shahid Noor was elected vice-chairman and Zulqernain Shah as committee convenor.
The APPSA meeting attended by representatives from all the four provinces and Azad Kashmir discussed private schools’ role in the promotion of education, problems, proposed legislation and regulatory authority. They also discussed the issue of ban on private candidates for appearing in science subjects in matriculation examination.
The APPSA leaders also demanded that the government should exempt private schools from all taxes till the achievement of cent per cent literacy rate. They said the private schools be treated as welfare institutions. They demanded that the education boards should simplify the registration and affiliation processes. They said the government should include association representatives in the bodies working to propose legislation for private schools.