APPSMA calls for ‘education emergency’

The All Pakistan Private School Management Association (APPSMA) has declared an “Education Emergency”, calling for an increase in the education ratio and demanding that the examination system be in line with the international standard.

The central president of the association, Kashif Adeeb Javadani and divisional president, Abrar Amad Khan, while addressing an education seminar said that currently, in Punjab alone, a record 26.7 million children are out of school.

They stressed the need for solid planning to get these children enrolled in schools. Some of the ideas they offered included the suggestion of evening shifts as school buildings are vacant in the evening. They also suggested a voucher scheme to admit these children to school.

Javadani emphasised that providing free education till grade ten is the constitutional responsibility of the government, but currently private sector is sharing 60% burden of government. “Instead of giving relief to the private sector, the government has imposed two dozen taxes on it,” he said, the association’s concern.

He lamented that the private education sector is currently at the mercy of the bureaucracy. So far, the education policy has been revised 13 times in the country, however, as Javadani stated, “Goals remain unmet and all the education policies have proved to be a complete failure.”

It was the APPSMA President’s view that the new education policy will not be successful unless it was made in consultation with all the private school organisations.

He warned that creating one education board by abolishing nine education boards in Punjab will prove to be disastrous. “Even considering this option would be a mistake,” he said. However, he believed that the examination system should be transferred from divisions to districts.

Presently, there are 125,000 private schools and 47,000 public education institutes. The main crux of the APPSMA’s statement was to stress the need for public-private partnership and show that the private schools were willing to cooperate if certain baseline demands were met.

Their main demand remained that the private education sector should be consulted when implementing the education emergency.

In particular, the APPSMA posited that the government provide a “Support Program” for private schools which would address complaints regarding lack of fund allocation for private education sector and expensive commercial bills of water, electricity and gas. “Taxes and other charges should be charged according to the ratio of students,” the speakers emphasised.

They also highlighted that the private school registration system has become obsolete. There are currently 50,000 applications for new schools in Punjab and 3,000 applications in Rawalpindi which await approval.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2024.