January 25, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 24, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 24: The Sindh Education department will hold a meeting to look into the problem of advance collection of tuition fees from students in private educational institutions early next month, said people in the education circles.

Parents are feeling aggrieved at the demand by a number of private schools to pay the fees for summer vacation, for the months of June, July and August, in advance before the closing of schools.

As such, it has in principle been decided that the matter would be placed before the Private Institutions Management and Quality Assurance Board (Pimqab), a body formed by the Sindh Education Department in line with rules pertaining to function of private schools, said an official of the education department on Tuesday.

The meeting scheduled for early February will focus on the fee structure of private institutions and the practice of collecting fees in advance for summer vacations and for other parts of the year, which is generally not appreciated by the parents, added the official.

He said educational institutions should refrain from such demands and wait for the decision of Pimqab.

Parents were critical of the education department for failing to rein in private schools demanding tuition and other fees in advance or undue.

It is sheer neglect of the private school directorate of the education department, which does not care for the problems and overburdening of parents.

An official notification pertaining to the decision of eliminating the advance fee collection system, which was issued last year and was accepted by a number of private schools, said that schools would not charge any fees under any head in advance in the future.

They will simply collect monthly fees up to the 10th of every month without charging late fees, added the 2005 notification of the education department.

Parents maintained that most of the schools collected fees through banks or staff at office who worked round the year, and said that in the absence of advance fee collection, a gap in the flow of money to the institutions could occur.

On the other hand, this also causes problems for some parents who plan to transfer their wards from one school to other, after results, which will be due by the end of May this year.

An official in the private school directorate at the Sindh Education Department said Schools demanding fee in advance schools should not campaign for advance collection of fees as so far no changes had been made in the related policy framed last year. Parents should inform the directorate if they are pressed to pay in advance, added the official.

Meanwhile, a private schools management association claimed on Tuesday that it had finalized a new schedule for collection of fees for summer vacations.

It decided that to save parents from any financial burden due to expenses incurred in Eidul Azha, fees for the month of June will be collected along with February, that of July with March, and the fees of August will be received with April.

It was also notified that students of Class 10 will pay fees for 10 months – from August 2005 to May 2006. These students will pay fees for the month of April along with February and the fees of May with March.