In a determined effort to ensure quality education for disadvantaged students, caretaker Sindh Chief Minister Justice (retd) Maqbool Baqar has issued a directive mandating private schools to implement the “10% freeship” policy.
This policy will grant students from underprivileged backgrounds the opportunity to access free-of-cost education within private schools across the province. The chief minister’s decision came in response to reports of private schools failing to comply with the policy and operating without accountability.
According to a letter from the CM secretariat, the chief minister has taken “serious notice” of the situation and has instructed the administrative department to promptly take measures for the implementation of the “10% statutory freeship” across all private schools in the province within seven days.
The letter, addressed to the secretary and director general of private schools in the School Education and Literacy Department, references Chapter IV Section 10 of The Sindh Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2013. This law mandates that every private school or educational institution must provide free education to 10% of its total number of students.
Despite the law being in effect since 2013, private schools have reportedly failed to comply with this requirement. The letter also emphasizes that strict legal action should be taken against any schools found violating or failing to comply with the policy.
It explicitly states, “Any non-compliance or inadequate compliance of the above policy would attract stern legal action against the responsible school administration.”
The policy dictates that private schools are obliged to “provide free and compulsory education to such proportion of the total student population as specified herein.” Furthermore, private schools are prohibited from enrolling less than 10% of disadvantaged students from the first grade onwards.
The chief minister has directed the relevant officials of the Education Department to enforce the law within one week and has requested a report detailing the progress made in implementing these directives.
