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Private schools to boycott regulatory authority elections

2017-09-14
PESHAWAR: The owners of private educational institutions have announced to boycott elections for members of Private Schools Regulatory Authority.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, National Education Council chairman Nazar Hussain asked the government to introduce certain amendments in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Act to make the law acceptable for the private education sector.

Flanked by Provincial Education Forum president Changez Khan, All Private Schools Association president Shahid Wali Khattak and Private Educational Institutions Association representative Iftikhar Hussain, he showed concerns over some clauses of the Act. He said that they would not take part in the elections if their demands were not accepted.

Mr Hussain said that the elections of the regulatory authority would be held in four zones of Peshawar on September 30. He added that a total of 15 members, including four from private sector, would be elected during the polls.

`We are favouring establishment of the regulatory authority in the province but concerns of private educational institutions over some clauses of the law should also be addressed on priority basis,` he said.

TheNECchief saidthatsmallprivateeducationalinstitutions should be exempted from giving 20 per cent concession in fee to sibling students. He said that according to a clause of the Act, the decisions of the regulatory authority could not be challenged in any court.

He said that number of the members of the authority f rom private schools should be increased from four to eight.

He said that instead of appointing bureaucrats, the chairman and managing director of the authority should be elected through voting from private educational institutions for five years. He said that management of private schools should be made autonomous to chalk out planning and criteria.

Mr Hussain opposed the ranking of private educational institutions, saying it would create differences among them. He also expressed concerns over scrutiny of private educational institutions at district level. He said that laws already existed to monitor the performance of private schools.

The NEC chief said that formation of autonomous financial and administrative committee was tantamount to interference in the internal affairs of the educational institutions, which was not acceptable to them.

He said that proposal to constitute such regulatory authorities in Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan was already rejected. Bureau Report