KP education boards directed to de-affiliate unregistered private schools

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mohammad Sohail Afridi has directed the chairmen of all education boards to immediately initiate a process to de-affiliate those high and higher secondary schools, which are not registered with Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA).

The chief minister is controlling authority of all boards of intermediate and secondary education in the province.

The elementary and secondary education department has conveyed the directives of chief minister to all education boards in the province through a notification.

“In exercise of the powers conferred under Section-12 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education Act, 1990, read with Section-21 of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority Act, 2017, the chief minister, has been pleased to direct all chairmen of education boards to forthwith initiate proceedings for de-affiliation of all private schools and educational institutions, which are not registered with PSRA,” said the notification.

Dept gives three-month time to such institutions for registration with PSRA

However, education department has directed all the boards that before passing any order of de-affiliation, the relevant board should issue a notice to each such institution, allowing them a period of three months from the date of issuance of notice to obtain mandatory registration from PSRA.

“Upon failure to secure registration within the stipulated period, the relevant board shall withdraw the affiliation of such institution forthwith in accordance with law,” the notification said.

It said that all boards of intermediate and secondary education should ensure strict and time-bound compliance with those directions and should furnish a comprehensive compliance report to education department immediately upon expiry of the notice period, indicating the institutions that obtained registration as well as those against whom de-affiliation was affected.

The secretary of elementary and secondary education department, Mohammad Khalid, told Dawn that legal action would be taken against those schools that were not following Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority Act, 2017. “The de-affiliation of unregistered private schools will remain intact until their registration with PSRA,” the secretary said.

The managing director of PSRA, Javed Iqbal, told Dawn that around 387 private high and higher secondary schools were not registered with PSRA but all of them were affiliated with different education boards for conducting matriculation and intermediate examinations of their students.

He said that such private schools had been functioning since long but their owners were not following instructions of PSRA about registration of their schools.

He said that unregistered private schools were located in different parts of the province and tribal districts.

According to official data, 196 unregistered private schools are affiliated with Peshawar Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, 100 with Swat board, 47 with Mardan board, 10 with Malakand board, four with Dera Ismail Khan board and 15 with Abbottabad board while 12 schools are affiliated with Bannu education board.

Section 21 (1) of KP Private Schools Regulatory Authority Act, 2017, provides that “no school shall be opened or operated in the province, irrespective of its affiliation, if any, with the inland or foreign board or certificate awarding body or students assessment and testing body, as the case may be, without registration with the regulatory authority.”

Officials said that PSRA had so far registered 11,587 private schools. However, a considerable number of unregistered private schools were still operating in the province, creating impediments in proper estimation of the reported out of school children, they added.

They said that PSRA officials had approached unregistered private schools for registration but the owners never honoured their request for registration. They added that the registration process was very easy and its fee was nominal.

Officials said that provincial government fixed Rs45,000 monthly salary as minimum wage for unskilled labour while most of the private schools were paying lesser salaries than minimum wage to their teachers and other employees. In the absence of registration, such private schools couldn’t be regulated, they added.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2026

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