Private Education Network (PEN) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has warned to launch protest campaign against delay in payment of funds under the provincial governmental voucher scheme to the private educational institutions. Speaking in a news conference at Peshawar Press Club on Saturday, the PEN provincial Vice President Fazalullah Daudzai said that the payment worth of Rs1.80billion had unpaid by the Elementary Education Foundation (EEF), an autonomous government organization to private schools, running the voucher scheme.

Flanked by office bearers of PEN and owners of private schools, Daudzai said the voucher scheme was launched by provincial government to financially support the education of out-of-school children in private schools. But, he said that EEF is using delaying tactics in releasing payments to more than 4400 schools since last one and half year, which has created great unrest among the owners of private schools and future of students on stake.

Furthermore, he said that the scheme is catering education needs of more than 52,000 out of schools children. He said that around 1030 private schools by provincial government had been included in the voucher scheme in 2018. The PEN Vice President said that attempts were being made to damage the private education sector. He said that funds had been stopped to private schools under the voucher scheme by alleging their misuse and corruption. He said that the payments were not ensured despite the conduct of three inquiries about the funds.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019