The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA) has decided to extend the semester system to private schools across the province to align their academic calendar with government educational institutions.
The semester system was introduced in government schools last year for students up to grade 8, replacing the annual examination system.
According to education department officials, the move aims to reduce academic burden on students and teachers while addressing issues caused by differences in academic calendars between private and government schools.
Officials said students from private schools faced difficulties transferring to government schools this year because private institutions continued following the annual examination system while government schools shifted to semesters.
Under the existing annual system, most private schools conduct final examinations in March and begin the new academic year in April. In contrast, semester examinations in government schools are scheduled to conclude by the end of May.
PSRA Managing Director Javed Iqbal told Dawn that the decision was approved unanimously during a recent board meeting, including support from representatives of private schools.
He said a committee formed by the Elementary and Secondary Education Department would decide the timeline for implementation.
Education Secretary Mohammad Khalid said the semester system had received a positive response in government schools and would also benefit private school students by reducing academic pressure and minimizing learning losses caused by long vacations.
This is a very good move. This will help student to learn in a better way without being overburdened.
Government should fix the admission and monthly tuition fee so that parents are not overburdened and anyone can afford it so that everyone get education which ever school they chose. Anyone violating it should be banned and his registration should be cancelled for lifetime.
Similarly, International level/standard unform educational syllabus should be taught in all schools whether government of private.
This will give equal opportunities to everyone.
If government introduces new educational syllabus for schools, then before implementing it, all teachers should be given well training on it and the books should be printed well before the new session and be available in the market for everyone. The new syllabus should be taught maximum for five years and then onward completely new syllabus. No money should be wasted just for one chapter addition on the pretext of new syllabus.
KPK educational system should be the best example for the rest of the provinces.
Psra and govt should also take steps to ensure private teachers get their monthly salaries in vacations. If semester ends in May for private schools and they close for vacations, no one would pay vacations fee. Government school teachers get their salariess no matter what happens.
PSRA is a useless authority as it failed to implement siblings fee concessions in school, ensure quality education as every school charging fee at their own without any standards, and submission of fee through online accounts ..most of the schools get fee manually…
Private schools are taking admission and misc fee during enrollment which is between 50k to 100k…no one is there to ask why they are taking this in addition to monthly tuition fee…while some schools are charging quarterly expenses also..everyther year they increase fee 10 percent..quality is degrading and fee is increasing…and PSRA is getting it’s share…forward college Peshawar charges ra.180k for 9 months ..one session….LIMs school getting millions of fee manually…no bank accounts