‘Private institutions hampering upward mobility of the poor’

Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Sunday said that the majority of privately-owned educational institutions were hindering the upward social mobility of the poor. Setting up a private educational institution had become one of the most lucrative businesses with little focus on quality of education, imparting necessary skills and teaching basic values, it said.
Institutions for the elite were just focused on minting money, attracting the youth and making careers, not minds, said PEW President Dr Murtaza Mughal.
These institutions guaranteed achievement with little experience, great success with no vision, and little consideration among students for those who were not fortunate enough, he added.
As the majority of elite institutions were engaged in cream skimming without realising that they were promoting objectionable values and inequality in the society, he said.
Dr Murtaza observed that parents willing to spend more to secure a good future for their children had not only contributed to the windfall of elite institutions but also resulted in the emergence of a new class of education tycoons in the country.
These institutions run by influential politicians and businessmen had successfully managed to double and triple their profits with little regard to their responsibility towards society.
It is disappointing that many leading schools milked parents on one pretext or others but did not offer scholarships or support to needy students as it was considered a loss to business, he observed.
He said that there was a great demand for managers who could ensure smooth operations while paying little to teachers, by finding new ways to generate extra revenue in order to extract maximum profit.
The monthly fee should not be more than the minimum wage and they should not be allowed to accommodate more students than their capacity, he said.
He noted that the mushroom growth of school chains and their swelling assets was evidence that education had become an attractive business which thrived on the exploitation of masses therefore authorities need to take immediate corrective steps.
The government needed to regulate private sector schools, make disclosures mandatory and encourage them to list on the stock market to pave way for public investment which could stop malpractice and help transform society positively, said Dr Murtaza.