LAHORE: The Punjab government has decided to bring a new law to regulate private educational institutions in Punjab which will provide protection to parents against exorbitant fees and other issues.

Punjab Schools Education Minister Dr Murad Raas disclosed this in the Punjab Assembly during the question hour session on schools education department on Monday. In the absence of Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Mian Shafi chaired the House's proceeding.

The Minister told the House that they will bring a comprehensive law, which will cover school fees, uniforms, books, harassment and other issues in private educational institutions.

He pointed out that a similar law existed before and teachers involved in harassment in a private school would have ended in jail instead of just tendering an apology. "At present, my ministry has no legal authority to take action against a teacher of a private institution. However, the new law will permit us to take action on any issue pertaining to private institutions in accordance with the law," he added.

While criticising the performance of previous government, Raas observed that during its 10 years rule, not a single legislation relating to educational institutions was carried out by the PML-N government. "The credit goes to the PTI government for bringing the new law on this vital subject," he added. He told the House that all the complaints received by his ministry have been processed and added that as long as the Coronavirus exists, 20 percent concession in private school fees will continue.

On publication of hateful and provocative material, he said they are also making a legislating in this regard; "we will take stern action against publishers involved in the printing of hateful and provocative material".

During the general discussion on health, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmeen Rashid briefed the House about the Coronavirus. She said that Pakistan can proudly claim that the Coronavirus infection has decreased by 90 percent. She further said that her ministry received Rs 12 billion to control the virus in Punjab. "Initially, at the start of the pandemic, Punjab had only 600 testing facilities, but today there are more than 12,000, and so far we have conducted 650,000 Coronavirus tests," she added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020