Private schools to be taken into confidence about 'new' education law

K-P govt to discuss new rules with stakeholders before implementation

PESHAWAR: The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Elementary and Secondary Education Minister Atif Khan, in a consultative meeting, assured the province’s private schools that they would be taken into confidence before any new education law is implemented.

During the meeting, representatives of private schools voiced their reservations on the government’s introduction of a uniform exam system for the 5th grade. The meeting was held in Peshawar on Tuesday.

The private school representatives, led by Executive Director of Beaconhouse School System Nasir Qasoori, lamented that they were not consulted before the introduction of the new system.

To this, the minister assured them that all stakeholders would be taken into confidence and all new rules and regulations will be discussed with them before they become legal. He also briefed the representatives of the benefits of the new assessment system.



At the end of the meeting the executive director of Beaconhouse School System assured the minister of his support and also lauded his role.

Changing tide

It is worth noting that the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has set a high bar for other provinces by taking its upcoming fiscal year’s education budget to Rs139 billion from what it was a mere Rs61 billion four years ago.

It is said that the state of education in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) is in a tussle with itself. In the 2015-16 academic school year, provincial education officials discovered that there was an influx of approximately 34,000 former-private school students at their government institutions.

According to experts the reason is due to the tenuous K-P Registration and Functioning of Private Education Institutions Ordinance, 2001, which has allowed the cost of private education to rise without a ceiling cap and without defined criteria on teacher qualification. Unable to afford private education and dissatisfied with their quality, parents have opted for public education for their children.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2017.