Punjab Study

Islamabad:January 25:The Punjab government is in the process of drafting a law to curb overcharging of students and exploitation of students, and improve working conditions for teachers of thousands of private schools, obtaining more than Rs5000 monthly fee.

“We can well anticipate the likely intense hue and cry the fabulously affluent proprietors of private schools will create on the move,” a senior official told The News.

He said that a major argument of the owners of these institutions was that they were imparting quality education and the parents willingly opted for their schools. Their plea is that their regulation by the government would harm the private sector investment and education, which flourished tremendously over the past couple of decades, he added.

The official said that under the envisaged law, an Independent Education Commission would be set up that would not have to do with the government and would have learned representatives from different sections of society. “The government will try to have little or no representation in this forum, which will be run by an independent law,” he said.

The objective behind the move is that these schools must not overcharge students or exploit parents; should not exploit teachers with poor working conditions like low salary and job insecurity, and should ensure corporate social responsibility by making room for ten percent students to be given free-of-cost education.

The official said that the commission would entertain complaints of teachers, students and parents, if they were exploited and provide adequate remedy. He said Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif wanted to know the views of all concerned before finalization of this law so that a complete consensus emerged on the measure.

The official said that one proposal was that only those schools, which were charging more than Rs5000 monthly fee from a student, should be brought in the purview of the new law. He said that there were fewer complaints from parents about schools charging Rs5000 or less per month. He said every parent whose children were studying in private schools often grudged about high fees and the lack of any official check or balance.

The official said that it would be made mandatory that a substantial percentage of deserving students should be given scholarship so that the fees they charged were also partially used for a better purpose.

A high-level committee of the Punjab government, which was recently formed, is working to finalize the draft law within the next ten days. The provincial assembly will pass it after approval of the federal cabinet.

The official clarified that the Punjab government did not want to regulate the private schools, which were catering thousands of students but desired to bring them within a certain discipline and mechanism.The news.