About 450 private educational institutions in the capital have registered with the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) since registration started in May. Peira Chairman Commodore Muhammad Sharif Shamshad (Retd) told APP on Friday that out of 550 privately managed educational institutions in the capital 543 had applied for registration.
He said all private institutions were asked to submit registration forms by May 15 and about 90 percent of them complied by that date. The chairman said the institutions, which did not apply for registration, within the due date were allowed to do so by August 13 with a fine of up to Rs 500 per day.
However, it had come to the notice of the authority that some institutions were facing problems and therefore they were given further time to submit applications by September 12, he said. The chairman said seven institutions had failed to avail of the relaxation. He said the Authority was following a flexible approach for the registration of institutions.
"The role of the regulatory authority is that of a facilitator and it does not want to put any unnecessary burden upon the institutions." He said Peira was established with an aim of registering, regulating and promoting privately managed educational institutions in the capital to ensure that they follow a uniform policy. To a query he said Peira was in constant touch with unions of private institutions and their reservations have been addressed.
"Private institutions and their unions have hailed the Authority's efforts for introducing reforms and provision of guidance to them", he added. He said Peira teams would carry out inspection of private institutions after every two years to ensure that they were following the rules and regulations.