In order to bring unregistered private institutions within the legal frame work and to unify the educational system, Sindh government has instructed the private institutions in the province to get them registered as earlier as possible.
"The EDOs (Executive District Officers) have been directed to send details of all registered elementary, primary, lower secondary, secondary and higher secondary schools to the Directorate of Private Schools/Institutions," an official in the Sindh Education and Literacy Department told Business Recorder on Thursday.
Previously, he said, the record of the registered schools lied within the concerned EDOs, but after the establishment of Directorate, the process of accumulating details was in process that would be completed shortly. He said the registration/renewal fee of the institution was only Rs 1,000 for urban and Rs 500 for rural areas.
According to the census of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, there are some 11,865 private institutions in the province, of them 73 per cent were in Karachi, 12 per cent in Hyderabad region and 15 per cent in rest of the province, he said. He said according to the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance, 2001, no institution could be established or run without registration.
He said any person intending to set up or run any existing institution would make an application to the Registering Authority, adding that every institution or its branch running under the same management or name at different premises would be registered separately.
He said the inspection committee of the department would submit its recommendation to the Registering Authority within 30 days of the receipt. The curriculum taught in an institution would be at least at par with the curriculum approved by the government for its schools and institution and the it would ensure teaching of Sindhi language in accordance with the existing law and rules, he added.
Informing about the rules and regulations framed for the private schools, the official said no person of foreign origin would be appointed to any post or admitted as a student to the institution without prior approval of the government.
Moreover, he said the institution would ensure that admission fee was charged from the student only at the time of his first admission into the institution and such fee would not be more than three months tuition fees of the respective class, main general registers and accounts books and ensure that no amendment in school register was made without the approval of the Registering Authority.
The institution would ensure teaching through prescribed books duly approved by the department of education and literacy, besides constituting a parent teacher association (PTA) with representatives of parents, teachers and the management and ensure the admission policy was communicated to the education department before the commencement of the academic year.
He said the fee structure of an institution would be fixed with prior approval of the government and the institutions would provide and maintain required infrastructure including classrooms, laboratory, library, playground, canteen and safe-drinking water facilities, while the pay scales, allowances, leave and other benefit to be admissible to the teachers and other staff of an institution would be commensurate with its fee structure. The official further said that the institution would observe all holidays, vacation as approved, announced or notified by the department or government.