According to the Private Educational Institutions Promotion and Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance 2015, the private schools would be imposed fines from Rs20,000 to Rs40 lakh. Private educational institutions have been directed to adjust the extra fees received earlier in the next month’s fee within seven days of issuance of the ordinance. The magistrate could impose Rs2 lakh toRs20 lakh fine on that institution. The owners of non-registered educational institutions would be fined Rs3 lakh to Rs40 lakh. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also ordered to seal schools that will not refund the extra fees received earlier. Total focus of the ordinance is based on heavy fines rather than facilitation, quality or promotion of education.
I would like to address the independent media, the government, parents, and the general public. I need to respectfully point out that the public education system is almost destroyed in the country and, if the current debate regarding private education is not channelised in a healthy direction, the private education system, which caters to nearly half the Pakistani population, particularly the middle and lower-middle classes, will suffer a similar fate. It needs to be stressed that Article 25-A of the Constitution declares that it is the state’s responsibility to provide “free and compulsory education to all children from the ages of 5-16 years”. It is not fair that this justifiable public wrath is being deflected towards private schools.
Under Article 25-A of the Constitution, it is the responsibility of the state to provide education. Though it is not their role, private schools are helping the government with the fulfillment of its moral and constitutional responsibility.Private school graduates have risen to the highest positions in Pakistan and internationally. Private schools enhance opportunities for admission into leading national and international universities, and open up unparalleled job opportunities for young, lower-middle class and middle-class Pakistanis.
Private schools conservatively educate more than 50 percent of children in Pakistan, and nearly 60 percent in Punjab. There are 173,110 private schools all over the Pakistan. In which there are 97,810 in Punjab; 32,850 in Sind; 24,660 in KPK; 5,880 in Baluchistan; 2,380 in Islamabad ICT and 9,450 private schools working in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan and others areas of Pakistan. About 23,839,431 students are studying in these 173,110 private schools. Approximately 15 lac teachers work at these schools. On the other hand if we see the last 10-year, only in Punjab more than 9,000 public schools decreased from 63,000 public schools to 54,000 public schools and the same situation is also there in other provinces of Pakistan.
