Lahore: To guarantee legal compliance in private schools, the Punjab Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2014 has compelled the provincial government to establish regulations, as mandated by the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Justice Raheel Kamran Sheikh expressed concern about the lack of regulations even after ten years had passed since the law’s passage, pointing out that the private education sector, which was meant to share responsibility for the disadvantaged children’s right to an education, had benefited from the government’s inaction.
“At best, it demonstrates blatant disregard for the government; at worst, it might be a case of regulatory capture that calls for further investigation,” the judge continued in her decision about a private school’s appeal against the refusal of a registration certificate in Sahiwal.
Read More: BISE Lahore Class 9th Date Sheet 2024; Check details
The judge stated that all children have a widely recognized right to free and compulsory education. He claimed that with the addition of Article 25-A to the Constitution, the state was now required to make sure that every kid between the ages of five and sixteen had access to free and compulsory schooling.
According to Justice Sheikh, the Punjab Assembly passed legislation allowing for free education in 2014. However, the court was unable to understand how the government’s inaction in failing to create and announce regulations in order to fulfill its obligations could have prevented underprivileged children from receiving their fundamental right to an education.
Read More: FBISE 9th 10th Class Date Sheet 2024; Check Details
The petition was submitted by the Beaconhouse School System in Okara in opposition to the refusal to provide its students permission to take part in the board examination and to obtain an E-license or school registration certificate for affiliation with the Board of Intermediate & Secondary Education (BISE) Sahiwal.
The petitioner’s/school’s attorney primarily contended that the District Registration Authority (DRA) had violated the Punjab Free & Compulsory Education Act, 2014’s Section 13(b), which addresses private schools’ obligations to provide free education, by taking legal action.
However, the chief executive officer of DRA stated that all renowned schools in the Okara district complied with the standards on their own, despite the fact that no regulations had been created by the government to carry out the implementation of Section 13(b) of the Act. He declared that the DRA would immediately renew the petitioner’s school registration if the petitioner provided information in a similar manner.
In the event that conditions other than those listed in Section 13(b) of the Act were met, Justice Sheikh allowed the petition and overturned the DRA’s and the commissioner’s contested orders. The Sahiwal Education Board was also directed to make sure that the petitioner-school’s students were properly registered for the secondary examinations.
The judge also ordered the Punjabi government to carry out its mandate to establish regulations, including those that specify the standards for identifying children who are disadvantaged, how vouchers are paid, and how the children’s legal records are kept up to date.