The deaths of 30 students and their woman teacher in a private school roof collapse in Peshawar have laid bare gaps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s school regulatory authority, official sources say. The Private Schools Regulatory Authority (PSRA) — the provincial body that registers and oversees private schools — lacks staff who can technically inspect buildings and does not have the power to shut an institution that breaks the law, according to those sources.
The tragedy struck on Thursday in the Afridiabad area of the city. All the children killed and injured were from the same neighbourhood.
What the school regulator can and cannot check
Sources in the elementary and secondary education department said PSRA staff are not civil engineers and therefore have no expertise in building inspection. In practice, they said, inspections focus on whether a school has enough classrooms, water, electricity and teachers, and whether it is registered.
Responsibility for checking private school buildings sits elsewhere. Sources said tehsil municipal administrations and the Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) approve building plans in their areas and are meant to oversee those structures.
An official of the school regulatory authority, speaking on condition of anonymity, argued that registration and its renewal should be tied to fitness certificates issued by the relevant building-control bodies. The official said PSRA staff cannot declare a school building fit or unfit for use, and cannot judge the load-bearing capacity of a classroom roof — work that only an engineer can do.
The same official said the authority also has no power to close a private school for breaking prescribed rules. The official claimed that when PSRA was set up under the KP PSRA Act, 2017, it could seal schools, but that that power was later withdrawn on the directives of a senior PTI leader who ran a chain of private schools. That claim has not been independently confirmed in the material available for this report.
Education department orders new safety rules
On Friday, after the collapse, the education department directed PSRA to frame rules on building safety and student accommodation in private schools across the province.
A letter to the authority’s managing director, conveying instructions from the secretary of the Elementary and Secondary Education Department, called a comprehensive regulatory framework for school buildings and students “imperative.” It asked the managing director to draft rules in consultation with technical authorities where needed.
The draft is to cover structural fitness, compliance with building codes, periodic safety inspections, classroom capacity, seating, overcrowding, emergency exits, evacuation procedures and other essential safety requirements. It is also to set out inspection and monitoring, how safety gaps will be fixed, building-fitness certification, and enforcement against schools that break the standards, within applicable law.
The draft rules and recommendations must go to the secretary within a week. The letter marked the matter “most urgent.”
Timeline: what has happened so far
- Thursday: A classroom roof collapses at a private school in Afridiabad, Peshawar; 30 students and their woman teacher are killed; children killed and injured are from the same vicinity.
- Friday: The Elementary and Secondary Education Department directs PSRA to draft comprehensive building-safety and student-accommodation rules for private schools province-wide, for submission within a week.
- 2017 (background cited by a PSRA official): PSRA is established under the KP PSRA Act; the official claimed sealing powers existed at first and were later withdrawn.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Peshawar ke Afridiabad mein private school ki chat girne se 30 bachay aur unki ustani jaan se gaye. School regulatory authority ke paas building check karne wale engineers aur school band karne ka power nahi, sources ke mutabiq. Ab education department ne ek haftay mein building safety ke naye rules banane ka hukm diya hai. Walidain ko yeh dekhna chahiye ke unke bacchon ke school ki building safe aur registered hai.
