ISLAMABAD: Against the spirit of Article 25-A, which guarantees free education for all school students, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) has decided to charge a fee from the students of pre-school (Prep) in the urban areas of the federal capital.

According to officials, the directorate took the decision to meet day-to-day affairs of pre-school sections of 70 schools which never received any significant funding.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the FDE the other day with director general Aamir Khawaja in the chair. The meeting was attended by the director literacy cell, area education officers, director schools and other officials of the FDE.

Sources said from March 1, Rs100 will be charged from students of pre-school (prep class) in the 70 schools in the urban areas of the federal capital.

“Yes, we have decided to charge a fee from pre-school students from March 1 because the schools have to meet expenses such as salaries of maids deputed to look after the children,” FDE spokesman Tahir Bhatti confirmed to Dawn.

He said the step had been taken as a stop-gap arrangement in some selected schools which offered pre-school education.

Mr Bhatti said the FDE would move a summary to the Capital Administration and Development Division (CAAD) to provide it funds. “Once funds are available, we will stop collecting the fee,” he said and added that schools in rural areas would not charge any fee from the pre-school students.

When asked about the violation of Article 25-A, a senior official of the FDE said under the law schools were responsible to provide free and compulsory education to all children. Every child, regardless of sex, nationality or race, shall have the fundamental right to free and compulsory education in a neighbourhood school.

In 2013, the FDE implemented Article 25-A in all the educational institutions to ensure free and compulsory education to all children aged five to 16 years.

“We are going to charge the pre-school students who are under five years of age. This means that it is not a violation of Article 25-A,” he claimed” said the official.

“Through this decision to be implemented in the urban areas, we have brought uniformity to the fee system. Earlier, some schools were illegally charging Rs100 to Rs500 fee, so now they have been allowed to charge only Rs100,” he said.

In the past, the schools used to collect fees from students to run their day-to-day expenses. However, after the implementation of Article 21-A in the capital, the government never released any significant fund for the schools, creating problems for them.

“Teachers used to spend the school funds to meet their expenses. However, after the implementation of Article 25-A, the schools have been facing an acute shortage of funds. The imposition of the article is a positive step but at the same time the government should release special funding to the schools,” said a school principal on the condition of anonymity.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2015

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