The All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) has opposed amendments proposed by the Punjab government in the private schools registration ordinance 1984 and said otherwise they would launch a countrywide protest.
President APPSMA Adeeb Jawdani told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that a delegation of APPSMA Rawalpindi Chapter headed by him had a meeting with two members of the Punjab Assembly Parliamentary Committee Brigadier Mohammad Hassan (Retd) and Raja Shafqat Khan and told them that existing provisions of the ordinance are sufficient to regulate registration of the private schools.
He said that the parliamentary committee members agreed with APPSMA that the amendment proposed by the Punjab Education Department were too harsh since they call for imprisonment sentences and a fine of Rs 5,00,000 to the defaulters of registration.
He said that the APPSMA wants registration of private schools and a system of checks and balances, but the government should not impose such conditions on the private schools which even the government schools were unable to fulfill.
Jawdani opined that policies of the government are not pro-education since the private school owners have to pay at least 15 taxes to the government and face harassment of the education department.
He said that there were more than 1,00,000 private schools in the country which were providing education to 10.3 million children in the country; therefore, these private sector schools should be facilitated to achieve the objective of universal adult education.