[Pakistan] Govt To Ban Private Educational Institutes

[Ryan]

Bad English, but newsworthy nonetheless if you can decipher what the author is trying to say.
http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=4&date1=2004-11-26

Govt To Ban Private Educational Institutes:
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan : Nov 26 (PID) - The government would not allow any private sector educatlona1 institution, in the country after 2007 to work. The dead line had been set in consultation with the private sector educational institutions with an advice from the government to bring their standard up and fulfill the "criteria laid down by the Higher Education Commission.
...
He also appreciated the role of Sarhad University for being the first university in the private sector to introduce distance-learning Programme in the country, which would benefit a large number of populations.

[John D]

Bad English, but newsworthy nonetheless if you can decipher what the author is trying to say.
http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=4&date1=2004-11-26

Govt To Ban Private Educational Institutes:

It sounds like the Pakistani private institutions will have to improve their standards by 2007 of go bust.

John D

[Bill Dayson]

I get the impression that in some countries private universities can be founded with little more than a business license. Academic quality assurance is largely a function of state funding councils, and if a private institution declines to accept state funds, then their academics remain largely unregulated. That creates a situation where 'private' essentially equates to 'non-accredited'.

The Pakistani news story certainly seems to be equating 'private sector educational institution' with the need to 'bring their standard up and fufill the criteria laid down by the Higher Education Commission'.

I'd guess that this isn't so much a move to outlaw private institutions as it is a move to make private institutions meet state standards. But apparently the author of this story understands the word 'private' to mean 'independent of state standards', so to him the news represents the banning of private institutions.

Compare that to the United States, where Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT and the University of Chicago are all completely private, but find nothing noteworthy in meeting all the expected academic standards.

I guess I can understand the attractions of socialism to many foreigners who reflexively equate 'private' with 'con-man', and 'state' with 'reliable'.