MARDAN: The parents of school going children have lauded provincial government for tabling `Private Schools Regularity Authority Bill` in Khyber Pakhtunl(hwa Assembly to regulate the affairs of private educational institutions.

Talking to this correspondent here on Tuesday, they asked authorities to pass the said bill and implement it forthwith.

They alleged that owners of private educational institutions had become businessmen and converted their institutions into shops and business centres.

Advocate Ajmal Khan Abbasi said that private schools had no authority to increase fee manifold as per the wishes of owners.

`We appreciate provincial government for its move to regulate private schools and improve standard of education,` he added.

Nazim Ittehad Council president Sajid Mohmand criticised the owners of private schools and said that they hired less-educated teaching staff against salaries ranging from Rs5,000 to Rs6,000 to save tuition fees for themselves.

`The school owners do not recruit qualified andtrained teachers as they will have to pay high salaries to them,` he added.

Mr Mohmand said that private schools did not pay any heed to improve standard of education. He said that the school owners did not arrange any training programme for the teachers.

`In such circumstances, it is need of the hour to establish an authority to monitor private schools and keep check on tuition fees, standard of education, facilities for sports and other cocurriculum activities,` he added.

Mohammad Qayum Khan said that owners of private schools were terming the bill as black law but in fact it was white law for the parentsofpoorstudentsasthey could not afford fees and other expenses of private schools.

The parents of the students demanded of the government to pass the bill and enforce the proposed law forthwith so that they could take a sigh of relief.

Imad Akbar Khan, local president of Private Schools Management Association, told this scribe that reservations of parents were baseless. `We impart quality education to students besides providing them with sports and other facilities,` he added.

Mr Khan said that private schools were conducting monthly tests while there was no such system in the government educational institutions.

`We assist government in education sector as there are 27,000 private educational institutions in the province where four million students get education,` he said.