LAHORE, Jul 03 (APP):The Lahore district administration and Punjab School Education Department have decided to further strengthen and expedite surveys and inspections of private school buildings to ensure compliance with building safety standards following recent incidents involving educational institutions. The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Lahore Commissioner Maryam Khan and Punjab School Education Secretary Mudassar Riaz Malik. The meeting also decided to launch a public awareness campaign …
Lahore administration decides to intensify inspection of private schools, academy buildings
LAHORE, Jul 03 (APP):The Lahore district administration and Punjab School Education Department have decided to further strengthen and expedite surveys and inspections of private school buildings to ensure compliance with building safety standards following recent incidents involving educational institutions.
The decision was taken at a meeting chaired by Lahore Commissioner Maryam Khan and Punjab School Education Secretary Mudassar Riaz Malik.
The meeting also decided to launch a public awareness campaign to bring formally operating tuition academies into the regulatory system through proper mapping and registration.
Addressing the meeting, Commissioner Maryam Khan directed the district administration and relevant departments to tighten building authority regulations and fitness inspections for all educational institutions. She ordered comprehensive surveys of the structural fitness of both formal and informal tuition centres and academies, and sought a building fitness assessment model from the district administration, the School Education Department and the Communication and Works (C&W) Department.
The commissioner also directed district-level education teams to launch an awareness campaign and said progress would be reviewed on a daily basis. She emphasised that the inspection of tuition centre buildings would not be a one-time exercise but a permanent mechanism with annual inspections.
School Education Secretary Mudassar Riaz said the tragic Kahna incident had deeply saddened everyone and noted that it had occurred at an unregistered tuition centre. He said recommendations had been prepared for a regulatory framework governing academies in the wake of the incident.
He added that informal tuition centres operating in residential houses, as well as formal tuition academies, would remain the primary focus of the government’s future regulatory measures.
The meeting was attended by Lahore Development Authority (LDA) Director General Tahir Farooq, Lahore Deputy Commissioner Capt (retd) Ali Ijaz, and officers from various relevant departments.
