our correspondent
PESHAWAR
The special committee of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government chaired by Minister for Education Akbar Ayub Khan Wednesday held a meeting with Private Education Network (PEN) to resolve the issues of private schools in the wake of COVID-19 situation.
The first committee meeting was held on special directives of Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan to formulate future strategies. The members of PEN said the private schools have been affected due to Corona situation and shared views over attendance of school teachers and administration staff, tax exemptions for schools and grant of soft loan for private schools.
The government body included Special Assistant to the Chief Minister for Excise and Taxation Ghazan Jamal, Secretary Education Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Managing Director Private Schools Regulatory Authority Tashfeen Haider while the PEN members included President Private Schools Education Network Saleem Khan, Fazlullah Daudzai, Anas Takrim and other officials.
The members of the committee agreed to allow 10 percent of the total teaching staff for online classes and other ten employees of the administration staff to attend the schools so that the school affairs could be run smoothly and also prevent wastage of precious time of students. Regarding grant of soft loans to private schools by Frontier EducationFoundation, Minister for Education Minister and other members of the committee asked the Education Department to recommendations for the Foundation while keeping in view the rules and regulations.
Regarding tax exemptions for private schools, it was noted that private schools have already been given tax exemptions on many places in the budget and no additional burden or tax has been proposed in finance bill 2020-21 on them, however the committee hinted at considering the issues and deciding in accordance with law.
Regarding the participation of private schools in the Ehsas program, Minister for Education Akbar Ayub Khan said that the matter would be taken up with Federal Minister for Education Shafqat Mahmood.
Akbar Ayub said that students of universities were benefiting from the Ehsas program adding that the federation will extend support if there is no legal complication, he added.
The next meeting of the body would be held on Monday to discuss and finalize recommendations for a report to be presented to the Chief Minister for action.
