Pakistani authorities have closed six Iranian schools that were operating illegally in the southwestern province of Balochistan, officials said on Saturday. All of the schools closed on Friday were run by Iranian nationals in Quetta, the capital of Iran’s border province.
“We have closed six schools, which were illegally run by Iranian nationals and where the international curriculum was taught in violation of the country’s law,” Quetta deputy commissioner Muhammad Zuhaib-ul-Haq told NAYADAUR TV.
Shabbir Ahmed, director of monitoring and evaluation of the provincial government’s Balochistan Education Foundation, said four other schools were under investigation, also for teaching foreign programs.
“It is more likely that the remaining four schools will also be closed because they do not meet the conditions either,” Ahmed said. “Foreign funded schools with foreign teachers and foreign programs are unacceptable.” He added that not only the management of the schools but also their faculty were made up of Iranian nationals.
It is still not known when the schools were created. While they had their 1992 no-objection certificates posted on notice boards, Ahmed said, it was not enough for them to function as they had not registered with the provincial ministries of health and education
The closed schools caught the attention of local authorities five months ago and have been urged to be properly registered. “They were given a form to register, but registration was refused because they did not meet the conditions,” Ahmed said. “If you teach in Pakistan, which is a sovereign state, you will have to teach the Pakistani curriculum,” he added. “It is not possible to teach a foreign program in a sovereign state.
