- PEIRA chairman says notices sent to illegal academies
ISLAMABAD: Academy and tuition mafias that have plagued the society are running their profit-making business in the federal capital without any rules and regulations, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The academy and tuition centres could be seen in every nook and corner of the city, with banners and wall-chalking with attractive slogans to woo students loot their parents in the name of quality education.
The mushroom growth of academy and tuition culture has put a question mark on the quality of education being imparted to the students, both in public and private sector educational institutions, because attending academies got tremendous popularity in the past one decade.
Talking to Pakistan Today, the parents of the students believed that they were left with no choice but to send their children to academies due to the poor quality of education imparted in their respective educational institutes.
They blamed that the government gave little attention to education sector due to which the quality of education was fast deteriorating in the country, therefore, they had to bear the extra cost of sending their children to coaching centres.
Zahid Abbasi, a parent, said that it academies were looting the poor parents with impunity, but played a vital role in bringing remarkable improvement in performance of his children. He argued that such institutions provided extra help and practice through test sessions that helped students in preparing for their exams.
However, Shahid Ali, an elder, was of the view that the teachers were not doing their duty with sincerity because otherwise, the children wouldn’t need to attend academies and tuition centres. “Teachers who are teaching tuitions or teaching in academies all day get exhausted at the end, so how can they teach properly the next day in class,” he questioned.
He said that practice should be banned as the teachers should rather focus on the actual duty of teaching in schools, for which, if needed, the government should increase incentives.
A teacher, who is running an academy, told Pakistan Today that they should not be blamed for poor education standards as they taught students diligently.
He said that various other aspects, apart from teaching syllabus, were taught to students that could prove quite helpful for the students.
To a question that why these valuable things were not being taught in schools, he said that there was a time issue.
Another teacher said that they were blamed for teaching tuition but no one raised the question as to how they were running their kitchens. He added that being a contract teacher, he did not receive pay for the last few months and his service was not being regularised so he has to do something to feed his family.
However, sources said that the academy mafia should register their academies with Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA), which they are reluctant to do. They added that though the academy mafia is strong, it is a fault on the part of the PEIRA as it, unfortunately, failed to implement its rules and regulations in the true sense.
Talking to Pakistan Today, PEIRA Chairman Hasnat Ahmed Qureshi accepted that the operation of all the academy mafia was illegal because they did not apply for registration, which they are bound to do.
The chairman said that they should properly apply for registration and pay the required fee in this regard and only then the PEIRA would inspect whether or not their requirements are complete for registration.
To a question, Qureshi said that they sent notices to the academies to register themselves with PEIRA or else face legal action.
He further said that the deputy commissioner has appointed a magistrate who will raid all such academies along with PEIRA team, and their illegal businesses could be shut anytime if they failed to comply with the set rules.