Ensuring uniformity: Senate passes bill for registration of private institutes

PEIRA will form committee to define criteria for policy measures.

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill for registration and regulation private educational institutions in the Islamabad Capital Territory.

The Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Promotion Ordinance), 2006 was promulgated to provide checks on schools and colleges in Islamabad Capital Territory.

The bill was passed by the National Assembly on February 6 and the Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet Secretariat and Capital Administration and Development passed it on February 20.

The ordinance formed the basis of the new bill, after the Senate body deliberated on it for over two years.

The Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) was tasked to register and regulate schools and colleges in Islamabad.

In the six years since its formation, the authority has registered 722 institutions, but its mandate has been flouted quite often.

“We can now serve notices to institutions to register with us in case they refuse to do so. Some institutions would even hide data from our inspection teams,” Peira President Atif Kayani told The Express Tribune. “We didn’t have any powers before.”

The bill requires Peira to come up with a policy to determine the “rate
of fee being charged by the institutions, qualifications of teaching staff, their terms and conditions of service including salaries and mode of payment of their salaries.”

Peira will ensure that the quality of education, facilities and salaries  offered by schools match the fees charged from students.

The bill, said Kayani, will help Peira ensure uniformity in the education standards of private schools. He added they would form a committee with relevant stakeholders to define criteria for policy measures.

All institutions will have now 90 days to register with the authority which will be mandatory for any school or college to get an affiliation with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education.

Owners of schools and colleges can be fined up to Rs5,000 or imprisoned for one year, if they run their institutions in contravention of the act’s provisions.

The federal government will allocate an annual grant to Peira, in addition to finances generated from registration and other fees, according to the bill’s draft.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2013.