Voicing reservations: Private schools, colleges to remain shut today

PESHAWAR:

The representative body of private schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa announced that it will hold a strike on Saturday to protest over the Education Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012.

As a result, more than 25,000 schools across the province will remain closed today.

Education Action Committee (EAC) members Fazlullah Daudzai, Nazar Hussain, Dr Zakir Shah, Anas Takreem and Fazal Hussain said that private education institutes were not consulted before the bill, which aims to bring the institutes under greater government scrutiny, was drafted. They criticised the government for politicising education regularity issues.

Earlier, the provincial government said massive changes would be made in the regulatory process of private education institutes, where a different curriculum is being taught to students.

“If the provincial assembly approves the bill, it will gravely affect the development and growth of private education institutions in the province,” said Daudzai, who urged the government to amend it.

Primary Education Institutions Management Association (PEIMA) President Yawar Naseem maintained the bill was trying to undermine the development of private institutions through the Central Regulatory Authority for education.

“The government will have the authority to impose their curriculum, teacher training procedure and staff salaries on our institutions which we cannot accept,” he added.

He said the chairman of the proposed regulatory authority will probably be an education minister and the managing director a bureaucrat. “No experts from the education sector have been involved in the entire process.”

Provincial Education Minister Sardar Hussain Babak said the government will table the bill in the assembly and then consult all stakeholders. He said that they will hear objections of the private school representative body as well.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2012.