Private schools flout govt decision by holding exams in April

Karachi, March 22: Several private schools in violation of a decision of the Sindh education department’s steering committee have decided to conduct the annual examinations of their students of Class I to Class VIII in April instead of March, it emerged on Saturday.

The steering committee at its last meeting presided over by Sindh Education Minister Pir Mazhar-ul-Haq directed all the schools to conduct the annual examinations of their students of Class I to Class VIII in March and announce the results of the examinations by March 31.

The decision was taken by the committee to ensure that the new academic session in all public and private schools of the province could begin on April 1, 2010.

The schools which have the Cambridge system of education were permitted to conduct the examinations in August.

However, a number of private schools in contravention of the steering committee’s decision informed the parents of their students that the annual examinations of Class I to Class VIII would be held in April and results would be declared in the last week of the same month.

Criticising the decision of all those schools whose managements had decided to conduct the annual examinations in April, a number of students’ parents who said that such a move not only amounted to an open violation of the education department steering committee’s decision, but would also delay the academic session of their children by a month.

A woman who rang us complained that she had planned to visit her ailing mother in Lahore once the annual examinations of their children were over by the end of March, but she was now unable to do so because of the different schedule of examinations being followed by schools as most of the schools were conducting the exams in March while some in April.

“Such a different policy with respect to annual examinations has upset my plans of seeing my ailing mother as my daughter who is a student of Class VI is nowadays taking her exams while the annual exams of my son who is in Class V in another school are scheduled to be held in April,” she said.

Sources in the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) said that it was mandatory upon all schools to hold the exams of their students of Class I to Class VIII in March and announce the results by March 31 so that schools’ new academic session could start on April 1 across the province.

However, they added that some private schools in their attempt to save their institutions from being selected as centres for the Secondary School Certificate (Class IX and X) annual examinations by the board were deliberately conducting the exams in April.

The sources said that such an act on the part of the private schools was not only against the decision of the steering committee, but also amounted to a violation of the BSEK school recognition rules. However, such schools remained unpunished because of their influence in the education department and the BSEK, they added.

Source : Dawn

PEF set to take over 1006 non-functional schools

LAHORE – Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) is taking over 1,006 non-functional schools of the province; out of which, 107 schools will be taken in the phase-one of the project.

As the schools are non-functional due to various reasons, including unavailability of teachers, students or buildings, therefore, it has been planned to make them functional through PEF mandate of promoting quality education through public-private partnership. A brain storming session was organised by the PEF at a local hotel on Saturday in which Managing Director PEF Mohyuddin Wani briefed the participants about the PEF initiatives to take over the non-functional schools of the provincial government.

Director CPDP Ms Maliha Batool presented the situational analysis of non-functional schools in the province and various suggestions were invited from the participants to explore the possibilities for public-private partnership in education sector to achieve the 100 per cent literacy targets.

According to the briefing, the initially proposed schools to the NGOs include 11 schools of district Mandi Bahauddin, 13 Layyah and seven school of Lodhran district which have their buildings; while, 33 out of 41 DG Khan schools, 31 of 38 Muzaffargarh and 23 of 28 Rajanpur district schools have also necessary building infrastructure.

Meanwhile, 20 of 33 Mianwali schools, 5 of 16 Multan schools, 41 of 52 Nankana Sahib, 6 of 13 Narowal, 38 of 55 Okara, 4 of 7 Pakpattan, 49 of 78 Rahim Yar Khan, 35 of 51 Rawalpindi, 2 of 7 Sahiwal, 21 of 35 Sargodha, 26 of 48 Sheikhpura, 36 of 47 Sialkot, 9 of 13 Toba Tek Singh and 5 of 6 of Vehari schools have also buildings.

It was decided in the meeting that GIS and TNA may be done at the earliest. The interested NGOs was asked to come up with their proposals, as the first phase has to be launched within one month.
It was proposed that organisations may suggest modalities to develop sustainable framework by catering indicators like infrastructure, repair and maintenance, teaching and non-teaching staff recruitment, salaries and training, students enrolment and retention, school management committees’ constitution and their activation, monitoring and evaluation mechanism and roles and responsibilities of PEF and NGOs may be defined accordingly.

According to the plan, the NGOs, entrepreneurs may be taken into partnership to achieve the target. Terms and conditions for partnership may be developed on the basis of needs assessment. The NGOs may turn up with suitable models to be implemented successfully and district-wise sustainability may be ensured by the applicant NGO.
Source: The Nation

Education sector fails to utilise funds of millions

Lahore: Due to cumbersome procedures in Punjab finance department, millions of rupees of college and school funds are lying rotten in the banks since years.

The public sector schools and colleges receive funds in the form of fine for absence of students, security, cycle stand, uniform, ID card, library and laboratory funds etc from the students which are deposited in the respective school, college accounts in the banks. Over the years, these funds have been multiplied into millions and are virtually abandoned, as neither the principal nor the headmaster is competent to utilise these funds without the consent of the Secretary Education and Secretary Finance thus the amount remain unspent.

To refer a few cases, the Central Model School Lower Mall have 2.50 million in its account, Central Model School Rattigan Road 2 million and an amount of Rs0.5 million to 2 million in different schools having 4,000 to 6,000 students strength. Islamia College, MAO College and almost all women colleges maintain their own accounts of millions of rupees.
The provision of missing facilities, like class rooms, boundary walls, electricity, furniture, drinking water facilities etc were the responsibility of the government which spent a sum of Rs21 billion under the Punjab Education Sector Reform Programme during the past few years while school, college funds were not allowed to be spent on any infrastructure development or improvement of facilities.

The colleges also fetch millions of rupees revenue from the second shift tuition fee etc which are also at the disposal of principals but they can’t spent any amount by virtue of their grade and status. What could be the utilisation, it is a matter to be pondered over by the policy makers in the education department

The education department, however, conceived a plan to utilise the college, school funds by empowering the respective principals, headmasters to utilise the funds up to certain amount under intimation to the secretaries of education and finance.

A committee was formed to deliberate the modalities and areas where the heads of institutions can spend amount on necessities like shortage of teaching and non-teaching staff, improvement of library and lab facilities, provision and repair of furniture and spending on extra curricular activities like sports, debates and study tours.

A six-member committee headed by the then principal, Science College and comprising principals of leading city colleges deliberated the issue and prepared a draft recommendations for implementation. However, with the passage of time government failed to implement the recommendations and with the change of government, the issue was driven to cold storage.

Source: The Nation

BSEK annual exams to commence from 24th

Karachi, The annual examinations of the Class IX, X (Regular and Private) will start from March 24, 2010, Syed Anzar Hussain Zaidi said on Wednesday.

BSEK also took serious notice of complaints regarding the cases of with-holding of admit cards of students, and directed the heads of such schools not to hold any admit cards without proper reasons.

The Board has been receiving a number of complaints that private schools are with-holding the admit cards of the Class IX and X students without any justified reasons or grounds which is unfair, Zaidi said.

However, there is no clear instructions available in the notification regarding the fees process and the loophole in the notification will provide benefits to the private schools, The News has observed.

Over 0.296 million candidates have registered for the annual examinations. Out of them, at least 12 candidates will appear from the central jail, he added. The BSEK has arranged 431 examination centres, including one at the central jail, he added.

According to the chairman BSEK, there would 241 examination centres for male candidates while female candidates would appear at 190 examination centres.

“The Board will request the Home department to impose Section 144 around these examination centres to control the law and order situation during the annual exams, he told local media.

He added that over 100 vigilance teams would also visit the examinations centres, he further said. Each vigilance team would comprise two members, whereas areas like Malir, South, East, West and Central would be monitored by special teams.

The Department of the Education, Sindh, and members of the Board would participate in this special committee, Zaidi said.

12 schools fined for unhygienic food

* Food squad raids on food vendors outside schools and colleges

Staff Report

LAHORE: The city’s 12 schools and colleges have been fined for unhygienic conditions prevailing at their canteens.

The city district government had closed down canteens at the city’s 11 hospitals for serving unhygienic food, on November 18.

The institutions are Islamia High School, Bhaati Gate; Fatima Jinnah College for Girls, Chuna Mandi; Islamia High School, Sherawala Gate; Queens Degree College, Mughalpura; Government Inter College for Girls, Mustafabad; Darul Arqam, Girls High School, Shadbagh; Government Pak Standard High School, Baghbanpura; Government College for Women, Baghbanpura; Lahore Children’s School, Shadbagh; Islamia Junior Model Girls School, Misri Shah; and Cumperni Sunreas High School, Gorey Shah.

The city government’s food squad on Wednesday destroyed unhygienic food being served.

The food squad also raided on food vendors outside NCA College, Old Anarkali; Central Model School, Lower Mall; Muslim Model High School, Urbu Bazaar; Government Junior Model School, Retigan Road; Pilot High School, Wahdat Road; Government Girls High School, Chuna Mandi; Aysha Degree College, Ravi Road; British Grammar School, Gulshan-e-Ravi; American School, Gulshan-e-Ravi; and Pak Lyceum School; Gulshan-e-Ravi.

Source: Daily Times Thursday, November 29, 2007