KP private educational institutions to observe strike on 23rd

RECORDER REPORT

PESHAWAR: Private sector educational institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have rejected the decisions taken by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Private Schools Regulatory Authority (KPPPSRA) against the relevant Act of 2017 and announced complete strike on April 23-24 to be followed by a series of protests if demands not met. Speaking at a joint press conference at Peshawar Press Club on Thursday, representatives of various unions of the private institutions said that the provincial government had established the regulatory authority but it did not give proper representation to the private sector of education.

Private Education Institution Management Association Provincial President Khwaja Yawar Naseer said that a notification recently issued by the regulatory authority was against the private sector of education and thus they as operatives of private institutions would not accept it at any cost.

He said a district management officer could not run the affairs of education and the only solution was to appoint an educationist (DEO) as head of the authority. He said that the government could adopt policies to ensure presence of the teachers, improve the result but it did not need to monitor the private sector as it was not giving any support to the private institutions.

Yawar Naseer said that if the government imposed its notification, over 60 percent of the private institutions would seize to work as they could not afford to further curtail the tuition fee or reduce it for siblings. He suggested that the government should either improve standard of the public sector schools or send money voucher to the private schools if it wished the poor students to get quality education.

He said that it was government’s duty to ensure education of all the children under Article 25-A of the constitution instead of forcing the private sector of education. He said that in the past the successive governments had encouraged the private sector and given them grant-in-aid, easy loans and allotted education plots on cheap rates through the Frontier Education Foundation (FEF) but the incumbent provincial government despite its tall claims was bent upon strangulating private sector.

Naseer warned that if the government failed to accept the demands, second step after the April 23 and 24 strike all the private institutions would observe one-week strike and as third step the institutions would announce complete shutter down strike for indefinite period. National Education Council Chairman Nazar Hussain, Hub of Private Education provincial President Aqeel Raziq and All Pakistan Private Schools Association provincial President Dr Zakir Shah also shared views and seconded the April 23 and 24 strike.