Fighting regulation: Private schools stage strike against PSRA

Private school owners express their reservations over the composition of the authority, want more representation

PESHAWAR: To protest against the private school's regulatory body recently formed by the government, private schools in the province went on a two-day strike on Monday, turning away children from the gates.

The strike came in response to a call issued by the Private Schools Owners Association (PSOA) as they protest against regulatory measures adopted by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA).



Private school owners have expressed their reservations over the composition of the authority and want greater representation on the body meant to control their establishments.

The school owners are also against the Independent Monitoring Unit set up by the K-P Elementary and Secondary Education Department who are now acting as a watchdog on their fees structure.

"We have to pay salaries to our staff during the vacations and if we do not charge any fees for vacations, where will we find the money to pay the salaries,” a principal of a private school explained.



“Our staff are not robots. They need salaries which we pay from the fees we collect."

Protesting the protest

In response to the protest by school owners, parents in Peshawar staged their own protest. They took to the roads against and staged a protest outside the K-P Assembly.

They announced that they would take the matter to the Peshawar High Court (PHC) unless the government resolved it. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2018.