Lahore high court: ‘Ban private schools, make state schools free’

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court was petitioned on Wednesday to direct the government to provide free education to children between the ages of 5 and 16 and to ban all private schools.

Advocate Syed Feroze Shah Gilani, the petitioner, submitted that providing education to children was the state’s responsibility under Articles 3, 9 and 37-C of the Constitution.

He said that the nation could progress only when Pakistani children received a quality education. He said that private schools had made getting an education unaffordable for the common man, while public schools were of a very poor quality.

He said that private schools had “turned a sacred profession like education into a profitable business” and this had resulted in a society with different standards of education. He asked the court to issue orders to the state to provide free education, as laid down by the Constitution. He also asked that all private institutions be restrained from functioning and a uniform education system be introduced.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2012.