QUETTA: Local authorities on Saturday sealed six Iran-funded and illegal schools in Quetta.

The schools, which were established without approval from the department concerned, were teaching Iranian curriculum to students.

Iranian curriculum is not recognised by any education board in Pakistan, officials said. As a result, the students of these schools have to go to Iran for further education.

“We have sealed six schools after completing our investigations. The schools were located in Karani road and Hazara town areas,” said Mohammad Zohaib-ul-Haq, a senior official of the Quetta administration.

Four more such schools were detected and an inquiry was under way against them, he said. “Investigations revealed that the schools were run by Iranian administrators and Iranian teachers,” he said, adding that the schools were established in 1991 under a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the provincial education department and the school administration.

The schools’ administrations did not renew the MoU during the last 30 years while the officials concerned of the education department did not fulfil their responsibility in this regard.

The director of Balochistan Education Foundation, Shabbir Ahmed, said that the officials of these schools had not applied for registration of their educational institutions. “Under Balochistan Private Educational Insti­tu­te Registration and Registration Act, it is mandatory for schools to get themselves registered with the government department concerned,” he added.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2021