90pc of Sylhet kindergartens run without approval

More than 90 per cent kindergarten and non-government English medium primary-level educational institutions in Sylhet are running without approval in the absence of monitoring by the authorities concerned.
No specific data about how many of such institutions are running in the city and on its suburb, however, is not available with the district primary education office.
According to the official data, only 11 kindergartens and non-government English medium primary-level educational institutions are registered with the district primary education authorities.
But as per an informal estimate, at least 150 English medium pre-primary and primary schools are running in the city and on its outskirts for the past few years.
According to the rule, it is mandatory to apply with the district primary education office with a payment of Tk 6,000 as fee for getting approval for running a kindergarten or an English medium primary school as per the government gazette published in 2003.
According to the gazette, the school authorities are also required to deposit Tk 2 lakh if the institution is located in the city corporation area and the amount would be Tk 1.5 lakh and Tk 1 lakh for district headquarters and elsewhere in the districts respectively to get registered.
Besides, the institution must have at least a piece of 15 decimal land in a city corporation area, 30 decimal in the district headquarters and 33 decimal out of the district headquarters for its campus as par the regulations.
The authorities concerned also have to provide a copy of lease agreement if the campus is in a rented house and the academic activities must be shifted to the permanent campus within the stipulated time fixed by the education official concerned, sources in the DPEO said.
But, more than 90 per cent of the kindergartens in Sylhet are not going by the rules in the absence of regular monitoring in this regard, sources in the kindergarten schools said.
There are three associations — Sylhet Kindergarten Association, Bangladesh Kindergarten Association and Bangladesh Kindergarten Welfare Association. The academic activities of kindergartens in the Sylhet district are operated under these associations.
These institutions realise high tuition and other fees in the absence of specific rules and regulations in this regard, local people alleged.
Talking to New Age, a good number of kindergarten teachers claimed that teachers of most of such schools were paid nominal salaries despite a huge earning by the school authorities.
Bangladesh Kindergarten Association’s Sylhet branch president Latifa Zahangir attributed the anomalies of these institutions to their not being enlisted with the authorities concerned.
‘We also want that the government supervise the activities of kindergartens and take punitive steps against those who violate the rules,’ she said, however, adding that rules were very rigid.
The district primary education officer, AKM Riaz Uddin, informed that there was no government instruction to take any steps against kindergartens for not getting registered.
‘If having registration was made obligatory for the kindergartens for sending their students to the primary terminal examinations, they would then try to be registered maintaining government laws,’ the district primary education officer said.

Courtesy of NewAge