Rawalpindi: Non-registered educational institutes doing ‘brisk business’

[Naveed Yaseen]

Malik Ayub Sumbal
The education department has failed to take action against 32 unregistered private colleges and 97 schools in the Rawalpindi district.

According to statistics available with ‘The News,’ only 85 colleges and 150 schools were registered in the district.

A source in the education department, on condition of anonymity, told ‘The News’ that the owners of most of these illegal academic institutions have political backing, therefore, nobody dares to take action against them.

According to the Private Schools Registration Act, the education department is responsible for taking action against illegal academic institutions, including getting registered FIRs against their owners. But so far in the Rawalpindi district, no such case has been registered against any institute.

The majority of unauthorised institutions are located in Saddar, along Benazir Bhutto Road and at Sixth Road. These institutions charge heavy fees from those students who fail to get admissions in reputed institutions. Despite charging heavy fees, these institutions have no affiliation with any education board or university. The students of unregistered institutions have to appear in various examinations as private candidates.

Muhammad Haseeb, who got admission in an unregistered commerce college, has a story to tell.

Talking to ‘The News,’ he said, “I deposited Rs40,000 fees and spent two whole years studying in the institute. However when the time of examinations came, I came to know that I could not appear in my papers because my college was unregistered. I demanded refund of fees from the principal, but he refused to do so and threatened me of dire consequences.”

Haseeb said, “I also went to the education department, but officials said that they couldn’t do anything in this regard.”

When contacted by ‘The News,’ Director Colleges (Rawalpindi Division) Dr. Ashraf said, “We have no knowledge about unregistered colleges. If anyone has a list of these institutions, it must be provided to us so that we could take action against them.”

Executive District Officer (Schools) Malik Ashraf said, “There are a number of illegal institutes which are looting students and spoiling their future.” According to him, there was no proper code of conduct to check the mushroom growth of fake academic institutions.

Malik Ashraf said, “I have recently taken the charge of this post and I am chalking out a strategy to impose a ban on those schools which are operating without any permission.”

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=179097