PESHAWAR, April 2: Ignoring protests against the increase in the fee of schools run by the University of Peshawar, the fee of colleges affiliated with the university would also be increased from the next academic session.
Speaking to journalists during a Press briefing here on Friday, Mumtaz Gul, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Peshawar, said that university was facing heavy losses due to its three constituent schools and two colleges which directly affected higher education at the university.
The university administration, through a notification issued here on March 27, had raised the admission fee from Rs3000 to Rs18,000 from class KG to class X.
The raise in fees was opposed by many parents who want their children to get their kids admitted in University Public School (UPS), University Model School (UMS) and Islamia Collegiate School (ICS) in the new session.
The university administration was facing a total loss of Rs40 million annually and the deficit of the university's constituent colleges was also high which include Islamia College For Boys and Jinnah College for Women.
The university administration intends to increase fees in its affiliated colleges including admission fee and tuition fee from the next session starting in September.
"Only Islamia College was facing a loss of Rs125,000 a day and its current year deficit stands at Rs45 million and Jinnah College's deficit in the current year is Rs16 million, causing a huge loss to the university," Mr Gul said.
"These schools were also overcrowded as only Islamia Collegiate School had about 3000 students and some 700 children of university employees are also studying in the same schools and the fee was meagre," Mr Gul said.
He said the university administration wanted to run the educational institutions affiliated with it on the basis of 'no profit not loss' rule.
He said the university administration was already faced with a host of problems which include the shortage of classrooms, lecture halls and hostels for the boy and girl students of the university. About 55 houses would also be built for the university teachers and the cost per house would be Rs1 million.
The university had approved three girls' and two boys' hostels and the construction work would be started in May, 2004.
An academic block behind Puta Hall would also be constructed which would cost about Rs100 million because the university plans to double the morning and evening shifts to benefit a greater number of students of the university.
Mr Gul said the university needed to overcome financial losses and that was the reason that existing marginal fees of the schools and colleges needed to be increased.
Sanaullah, another official of the university present on this occasion, said that the administration planned to reduce the strength of students per class.
"Each class would have 45 students to remove extra burden from teachers as the classroom were in pathetic condition due to overcrowdedness," he said.