PESHAWAR, Oct 15: Like its predecessor, the Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf-led provincial government has failed to establish an authority to regulate the affairs of private schools, which charge high fees from students and pay meagre salaries to teachers, according to officials. The previous provincial government had taken the initiative of regulating the private schools by proposing Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012 for establishing a regulatory authority but in vain.

The drafting of the bill, consultations with different stakeholders and finally its tabling in the assembly had taken around three years but all the efforts went wasted as the Awami National Party-led previous provincial government bowed to the pressure of private schools and resultantly the law couldn`t be passed.

The Peshawar High Court also on several occasions directed the previous as well as the present government to enact a law for regulatingthe affairs of private educational institutions. But like the previous government, the present one has also turned a deafearto the ordersofthe court.

During last hearing on Oct 1 a two-member bench of the high court headed by PHC Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan directed the provincial government to enact the said law within 15 days.

The bench observed that the private educational institutions were minting money from students but the government had failed to enact a law for checking those institutions.

In the absence of an effective regulatory authority, several longstanding issues pertaining to the private schools would persist in future because no one can put hands on the owners of the private schools even if they charge high tuition fees, increase different fees frequently on their own well, pay meagre salaries to teachers and have no criteria for teachers` appointment and their termination.

Currently there was no fees structure for the private schools and theircategorisation, said officials of elementary and secondary education department.

They said that private educational institutions were supervised and regulated by the toothless regulatory authorities established at board level in the province. These authorities were set up under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Registration and Functioning of Private Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2001.

Section 18 (1) of the said ordinance states: `The regulatory authority shall prepare guidelines for the registered institutions, excluding a private university, for the qualification, pay scales and privileges of the teachers.` However, despite a lapse of more then 12 years, the regulatory authority has not prepared guidelines regarding teachers` job description, according to sources.

The present law is silent regarding fixation of tuition and other monthly fees and annual increase in the same. `In such a situation, the unbridled administrations, particularly the elite schools, have often been found exploiting the parents bycharging high fees,` sources said.

They said that the previous government had decided to establish a regulatory authority and after bureaucratic delaying tactics, the bill was finally approved by the provincial cabinet on October 1, 2012. It was tabled in the assembly, however, it couldn`t became a law as it was referred to the committee concerned for consideration.

The committee had held two meetings but after lengthy consultations its members differed with each other and the bill couldn`t be passed as general elections were round the corner and the owners of private schools could affect their vote bank, sources said.

The then education minister Sardar Hussain Babak, who was chairing the final meeting of the committee, told his colleagues disappointedly that private schools won and provincial government lost, said a senior official of the education department.

According to the proposed bill, which couldn`t become a law, the regulatory authority would deter-mine minimum qualification, training, service and pay structure for teachers in the private schools.

It would also prescribe training programmes for teachers in schools and monitor their implementation as well as evaluate academic performance.

The proposed regulatory authority was also clear about categorisation of schools on the basis of quality of education and facilities provided to students and fixation of different fees.

Minister for Education Mohammad Atif Khan, when contacted, said that the department was working on the reform programme of government schools. `The establishment of regularity authority is part of the plan but work on it has not been commenced yet as the department is busy in other works,` he said.

The owners of the private schools had many reservations at the proposed regularity authority of the previous government, the minister said. He added that another authority would be formed with the consultation of the private school owners.