PEF, presently, welcomes the individuals to apply for affiliation with NSP who are permanent residents of the same tehsil for which they are applying for, have an age of 25-60 years and minimum qualification of intermediate level, and are not Govt. employee in any capacity (Permanent/ contract). Further, NSP department publishes an elaborated eligibility criteria for potential applicants along with the advertisement of advertised phase.

School against a site is selected where population is approximately 350 individuals and no Govt. /PEF School exists within 1 km radius of the site. Further, Phase-wise merit-based selection is made in light of pre-approved criteria.

NSP Program is present in all 36 districts of the Province of Punjab.

A child of school going age i.e. 5-16 Years, as defined by the State, who has never attended any formal educational institution or has remained dropped out from the institution for more than 03 months is considered as an out of school child (OSC).

The school owner will get his /her school registered with the District Registration Authority within 2 years after entering into partnership with PEF-NSP. In case of non-registration within given timelines, school may be penalized and/or its partnership may be cancelled.

The payments are made on monthly-basis via online transfer system against verified students and upon submission of (Online) Monthly Enrolment Update in SIS by the Partner till 10th of every month.

Quality of education is maintained through a quality assurance system which is a combination of regular, periodic monitoring and an annual Quality Assurance Test (QAT).

PEF-NSP partner schools are allowed to have maximum two campuses. However, in the event of extreme need a 3rd campus may be allowed as a special case. The maximum distance between the campuses should not be more than 500 meters for rented buildings and 1 kilometer for owned building. Distance of all campuses are measured from main campus. Furthermore, distance of main/sub campus(es) should not be less than 500m from any Govt./PEF school.

The qualitative performance of a school can be ascertained from their Annual Quality Assurance Test (QAT) results. Further, PEF Monitoring Team visits its partner schools on regular intervals during the year. The following are some of the standards that are checked during monitoring of schools:

1. Student verification
2. School Infrastructure verification
3. Record verification
4. Implementation of PEF/Govt./SED Policies/ SOPs
5. Money charging from students
6. Corporal punishment

The Punjab Education Foundation carry out students verification of partner school to check/verify the accuracy of the reported enrolment, improvements made in the infrastructure (including rooms, toilets, drinking water facility, lighting in rooms, fans, electricity, furniture, security arrangement etc.) and standard of cleanliness and hygiene at any time without notice during working hours of the partner school.

NSP performs schools categorization annually for continuous improvement of the Program. All NSP partner schools have been divided in Four categories i.e. A+, A, B and C, mainly on the basis of their QAT result, physical infrastructure and teachers’ qualification, findings of monitoring reports, retention in enrollment, PEC/ BISE results etc.

To gauge the quality and standard of education, Quality Assurance Test (QAT) is conducted annually in all NSP partner schools. It is a key determinant for continuing financial support and failing in three consecutive QATs, the financial assistance is discontinued and partnership cancelled. In order to qualify for QAT, 50% of tested students of the partner school are required to secure 40% marks in all subjects. Test is composed of multiple choice questions and subjective questions also.

The partner schools are required to display the prescribed PEF-NSP board on its main gate and/ or any other prominent place. The specimen of the board is provided by PEF-NSP which is basically for information of general public that the children enrolled in the educational institution are supported under the PEF-NSP Program and education is provided free of cost.

Student Information System (SIS) is a web-based application portal designed to collect and store a structured information for integrating students, parents, teachers and the administration of all NSP schools.

Student information system meets the following objectives:

1. Maintenance and reporting of student’s data as per school record
2. Maintained school teacher’s data
3. Handling inquiries from prospective schools
4. Handling the admissions process
5. Enrolling new students
6. Handling records of PEC and BISE examinations
7. Providing statistical reports

When schools enter into NSP partnership, a SIS login is provided to individual NSP partner to update its enrolled students in PEF-SIS as per school record. Payments are calculated on the basis of Online Monthly Update submitted by the partner in SIS.

The student-drinking point ratio should not exceed from 70 students per drinking point. Similarly, same ratio will be observed for toilet facility. However, separate toilet shall be provided for girls students. There should be separate toilets for teachers/staff/principal which will not be considered while calculating school ratio.

The partner school shall not conduct/ carry out after school classes within its premises. Any academic or non-academic activity for profit making shall be carried out once the school comes into partnership with the PEF.

Maximum policy cap is allocated on the basis of BOD decision. The school must ensure the provision of proper infrastructure and all relevant facilities for its enrolled students.

It is strongly suggested that school administration should take particular care and diligence in submitting the monthly enrolment update to NSP. Any negligence or ignorance will also result in the imposition of penalties. Conveying of wrong information to visiting monitor will also be dealt strictly and penalty imposed.

PEF exercises a zero tolerance policy against corporal punishment. As per NSP SOPs penalty is imposed on the school where corporal punishment is reported. Repeated observation of corporal punishment can lead to cancellation of NSP partnership as well.

New phase of NSP is launched keeping in view the enrollment targets of financial year, and subject to approval of its Board of directors.

Yes, but appeals can only be filed against following decisions on prescribed format available on PEF-Website:

1. Cancellation of Partnership.
2. Blacklisting in PEF record.
3. Rejection/ Non Recommendation of applicant school during school selection process for new Phase.