THE Beaconhouse School System has come up with an unrealistic and unjust fee demand from A2 students, like my child, who have chosen to sit A2 examinations in the October-November 2021 series as a consequence of academic rescheduling owing to the Covid pandemic.

In April, the school administration in Abbottabad demanded advance payment of fee for A2 students until June. The administration gave us a one-week deadline to pay an astronomical amount of money, and failed to give us a justifiable explanation when asked why we should pay fee in advance in the midst of a pandemic.

On the decision taken by the government, A2 students were given the choice to sit examinations either in the May-June session or in the October-November series. This was a choice given due to an unprecedented, unique situation concerning a health crisis for which no student was responsible.

Due to numerous reasons, we believed it would be best for our child to sit the examinations in the October-November series. Now the school is asking me to pay my child’s A2 school fee until November under the excuse that she is technically still a student of the school.

We were never informed in any way that we would be required to pay fee till November if the October-November series was chosen. In fact, we would have never expected such a demand because the A2 syllabus is completed; there are no classes and no teaching to take place.

Shouldn’t the school have informed us that we would be required to pay fee until November should we choose the October-November series? What exactly am I paying for? What kind of explanation could possibly be given to justify paying Rs43,600 plus tax for every single month until November when my child is not being taught anything?

The academic year for A2 is over. We are receiving no benefits from this school anymore. Isn’t this demand absurd and sheer exploitation by the school?

I expect federal and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education ministers to take this school to task and stop these money-minting tactics.

Fada Khan
Abbottabad

Published in Dawn, June 17th, 2021