The Punjab School Education Department has ordered a province-wide crackdown on private schools operating without legal registration, signaling an end to a series of ignored deadlines and warnings. District Education Officers (DEOs) across all 36 districts now have the authority to seal institutions that failed to register through the government’s dedicated portal.
The move targets thousands of “street schools” and low-cost private setups that have bypassed provincial standards for safety, teacher qualifications, and curriculum for years. Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat confirmed the directive, noting that the province can no longer overlook the lack of oversight in these institutions.
“We aren’t interested in shutting down businesses, but we won’t allow schools to operate as ‘ghost’ entities with zero accountability,” he told reporters in Lahore. He added that the department provided ample time for compliance, yet a significant number of owners chose to remain off the grid. The stakes for students are high.
Those enrolled in unregistered schools often face massive hurdles during board examination registration. Because the parent institution doesn’t officially exist in government records, students are frequently forced to appear as private candidates or worse, find their academic years unrecognised by the state.
The department’s online registration system was designed to eliminate the “bribe culture” previously associated with manual licensing. Despite the streamlined process, officials estimate that over 10,000 schools in Punjab are still operating without a valid license.
Teams led by Assistant Commissioners and DEOs will begin field visits this week. Schools found non-compliant will face immediate sealing, and their owners could hit with heavy fines under the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) Ordinance. For parents, the government’s message is blunt: verify a school’s registration status before paying the next term’s fees. The department warned that any school currently lacking a registration certificate will not be permitted to enroll new students for the upcoming academic session.
