LARKANA: Sindh Minister for Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has asked school heads not to charge students any extra fee on the pretext of buying answer sheets and question papers and warned if anyone was found collecting it, they would have to face action.

The minister has taken notice of reports that Rs50 each are being taken from students of class V to VIII for the examination, starting from March 16, and directed the secretary of education to immediately release funds to district education officers for the exams-related expenses, according to a statement e-mailed to Dawn on Wednesday by Shakeel Memon, press secretary to the minister.

Also read: Class V-VIII candidates being made to pay Rs50 each for answer sheet, paper

The minister asked the secretary to ensure funds were released in time so that question papers could be prepared and printed in time and answer copies could be arranged, he said.

He said the minister expressed concern over non-utilisation and lapse of ‘school specific budget’ for two years and asked the secretary to check as to why the budget lapsed and who was responsible for it.

Mr Khuhro said that action would be taken against the delinquent and observed the current year’s ‘school specific budget’ should be spent adequately till April 30 to bring improvements in schools and asked the officers concerned to send him progress reports daily to show how the budget had been spent, said the statement.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2015

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