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LAHORE: DCO retired Captain Muhammad Usman on Monday directed owners of private schools to return the additional money they had received from parents on the pretext of increase in monthly fee.
“We will not allow you to increase the monthly fee during the on-going academic year. You will have to return the additional money to parents,” the DCO warned the owners in a meeting.
He said that owners/administrations of schools would have to justify their stance before the city administration every time they intended to increase the monthly fee.
He directed the education officers to immediately respond to the complaints in respect of increase in the school fee.
PROTEST: The parents of private schools children on Monday continued their protest against a raise in school fees.
Holding placards and banners, the parents chanted slogans against private schools and the apathy of the government towards the issue.
They said schools’ administration increased fees every now and then without any reason. Since there has been no check on them from the government, private schools were fleecing them, they said.
They said they would continue their protest here and Islamabad till the government intervenes and brings the private schools under some regulation.
Last week, Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood held a meeting with representatives of private schools but failed to convince them to withdraw a recent increase in fees.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had also issued a statement warning private educational institutions not to increase fees unnecessarily. “Action will be taken against private educational institutions under the rules and regulations receiving more fees unnecessarily from students,” he warned.
Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2015
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Comments (27) Closed
Sep 15, 2015 09:49am
Which school is this ?
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Sep 15, 2015 09:53am
Government should fix the fee structure and afterwards no school administration should be allowed for an increase.... This needs to be fixed on yearly basis. Admission fees that they collect from old students every year should also be ended..... Also, they need to file their income returns and number of students with their fee slips should be checked by the tax departments. Proper check and balance system needs to be implemented.
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Sep 15, 2015 10:09am
Education is nothing but commercial business thanks to the corrupt politicians!!
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Sep 15, 2015 10:15am
It would be interesting to see who owns these businesses. Common people would be happy to know that their leaders like Qasuries are running these "Public Welfare" projects
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Sep 15, 2015 10:21am
@SOS yes true !! education is now commercial business .. but not because of corrupt politicians .. its because of the fact that we teach our kids that they can only be able to earn good money if they are well educated .. when we have completely altered the notion behind education from being a good human and knowledgeable to just able to earn good money, we ourselves have commercialized the education, not the corrupt politicians !!!
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Sep 15, 2015 10:47am
In germany the education is free, if the student could not afford the living expenses then government of germany provide them fund. Pakistan should learn from non muslim developed countries as the fact that all the developed non muslim countries learnt these thing from muslim ancestors, when the illetaracy vanish from the pakistan the development occur automatically and corruption will also be demolished. The corrupted people don't know how to live discipline and calm life.
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Sep 15, 2015 10:57am
All private schools globally are expensive as compared to state schools. Private schools are a business that is put in place for profit maximisation and is not different from any other business. The problem that needs to be focused on and protested against is the abandonment by the state of its obligation to provide a) education and then b) quality education at affordable prices or for free. Otherwise supply and demand will govern pricing.
There is no point of this exercise unless there are alternatives pricing will continue to reflect reality.
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Sep 15, 2015 11:27am
There are many schools like The Country Schools etc are reeving fee of Summer Vacations where LHC ordered them not to claim the fee of Vacations.
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Sep 15, 2015 11:58am
if increased school fees are really unjustified why government officials did not noticed it timely rather parents.are they not drawing their handsome salaries and facilities from public taxes. punish public servants on irresponsibility charges if it prooved by laws. time is most important factor that makes case weak or strong.
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Sep 15, 2015 12:10pm
Send kids to public schools instead of private. Simple as that. Useless protest
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Sep 15, 2015 12:48pm
The school owners expected to abide this order and return fees?
No way. Since when private school owners have become such fearful of govt orders ? If the authorities are really sincere and want action in this respect they must ensure implementation and not let this issue buried under the carpet after this much noise.
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Sep 15, 2015 01:05pm
It has become a normal practice to increase fees every year.When I contacted the school administration they said that I have signed at the admission form that fee would be increased every year from 12 to 15 %.In addition to the school fees computer fees is also charged which is simply unjustified.We are already finding it hard to make both ends meet and this situation is making things worse.On the other the quality of education is on the decline and needs alot of improvement.
The competition commission of Pakistan has also initiated a probe into this matter and the details could be found at www.cc.gov.pk. They have asked the public to send any complaints regarding fee increase by private schools at oftcomplaints@cc.gov.pk..
Its a matter of all the parents in every city of Pakistan..Government needs to draft a policy regarding this where any fee increase first gets approved from some government department..
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Sep 15, 2015 01:16pm
Private schools are running businesses. These are not charitable institutions. One should raise its voice to increase the standard of Government Institutions.
Even if one is not satisfied with this argument, he/she should move their children to other institute.
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Sep 15, 2015 01:23pm
@Shams Aziz Yes, lets have free education but not pay a single dime in taxes
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Sep 15, 2015 01:30pm
Private schools... is a big business in Pakistan.
They always go unckecked and it is a shame for our authorities.
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Sep 15, 2015 01:49pm
In Sindh no government exists to look into the affairs of Education Mafia.
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Sep 15, 2015 02:26pm
The people need to take matters into their own hands. What we need is to crowd fund a school which should have parents as its governors. But in the end I think we get what we deserve. All of us are corrupt from the core. sorry but thats a fact.
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Sep 15, 2015 02:54pm
Such steps should be taken for all the schools (country-wide), rather than a particular province. Any increase should be charged under specific head. Like, most of the schools increased the fee vis-a-vis recent security related incidents.
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Sep 15, 2015 03:28pm
The CM earned “Action will be taken against private educational institutions under the rules and regulations receiving more fees unnecessarily from students,”. Who would decide or debate the NECESSITY for increase? It is purely a political statement where there is no intention of addressing the issue fairly.
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Sep 15, 2015 03:38pm
A very good initiative indeed - I urge all the parents to actively participate in this drive and assist the governing bodies to clean the mess created by the private institutions in the name of education.
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Sep 15, 2015 04:07pm
Fees are increasing because there's inflation. Inflation is a result of gov't giving easy loans (credit) and printing money. At the end of the day is that private institutions are a voluntary service.
Gov't job is not to meddle into the affairs of private business as one is not being forced to keep kids in private schools. Those unwilling to pay are free to go elsewhere, to schools that are of better quality for the costs they charge.
Higher fees will attract more schools to open up. With the increases in population it is quite understandable the prices are going to go up as quality schooling is a scarce resource. One doesn't go around asking gov't to lower the price of gold in the market. Supply and demand determine this outcome in presence of free markets.
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Sep 15, 2015 04:31pm
@Imran Yaqub The issue was never raised in the past but now since these institutions have exceeded their limits and completely created a mess in the name of education that the concern has been raised; standard of the education has greatly deteriorated whereas the fees has gone up tremendously.
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Sep 15, 2015 04:35pm
DCO sahib zinda bad
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Sep 15, 2015 05:48pm
Government has no check and balance on these private schools.This year school has increase my daughter fee more than 25 %.
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Sep 15, 2015 09:01pm
Dear All the reason people send children to private school is because the quality of education in govt schools have really gone down. There are less of them as well. If our govt schools were to improve their standard of education and facilities then this would solve the problem. Private schools run their schools as a business so telling them to reduce their fee..is not right..we need to improve the standard of govt schools..
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Sep 15, 2015 10:17pm
@shaukat The boards are the biggest mafias
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Sep 16, 2015 06:09am
@rana Why don't government help to make government schools just as good in education as provate schools? That would provide a level field for competition to get students, and to provide them better education. But it requires many many officials and politicians devoted to serve the people, instead of...
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