Rawalpindi (News Reporter)
An important meeting of the Private Schools Association was held under the chairmanship of Punjab School Education Department Secretary Mudassar Riaz Malik, during which several key decisions were taken. These included removing private educational institutions from the commercial category and placing their utility bills under the domestic tariff, fixing the number of teaching days in the academic calendar for private educational institutions at a maximum of 227 days and a minimum of 190 days, and introducing legislation to promote private educational institutions under the relevant Act.
The meeting also discussed increasing registration fees, registering unregistered educational institutions, extending the validity of school registration to four years, and introducing legislation regarding the issuance of building fitness certificates, with assurances given that the necessary legal measures would be undertaken.
The fifth important meeting of the committee established for preparing a uniform academic calendar was held in Lahore. The meeting was attended by Special Secretary Schools Muhammad Iqbal, Central President of APSMA Kashif Adeeb Javedani, Central Secretary General Amjad Ali Khan, APSMA North Punjab President Abrar Ahmad Khan, Qazi Naeem Anjum (Apex Schools System), Chairman Pakistan Chamber of Education Ali Raza, Executive Director Lahore Grammar School Mrs. Nighat Ali, CEO KIMS Kamran Ahmad, Senior Law Officer Punjab Education Department Muhammad Asif Iqbal, and other participants.
Kashif Adeeb Javedani and Amjad Ali Khan referred to a recent meeting with the Punjab School Education Secretary and highlighted issues including the sealing of private educational institutions in some districts of Punjab due to the non-availability of commercial building plans, registration-related problems, actions taken by para-forces against private educational institutions, and concerns regarding the formulation of the academic calendar.
APSMA North Punjab President Abrar Ahmad Khan stated that the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Act does not contain any provisions for the promotion of private educational institutions but instead imposes heavy fines.
Punjab School Education Secretary Mudassar Riaz Malik assured the participants that legislation would be introduced to remove private educational institutions from the commercial category, extend the registration period to four years, and establish a uniform academic calendar with a maximum of 227 teaching days and a minimum of 190 teaching days. Following this announcement, all participants of the meeting expressed their appreciation in an enthusiastic manner.