While breaching the Punjab Education Department’s orders not to charge any admission fee during school enrollments, the heads of the government schools have openly started taking Rs. 100 admission fee from students.
According to sources, the Punjab government had ordered the exemption of the admission fee from newcomers in the government schools to enhance the enrolment and improve the educational quality in the institutions, but the heads of the schools did not pay any attention to the orders. This may shrink the number of students taking admission in the government schools to a great extent and the poor parents, who could not pay the fees, feared that their children would be deprived of education, said the sources.
While talking to agencies, Abdul Wahab, father of a student, said that he had to pay the fees of his four children besides supporting his whole family. He added that it was impossible for him to pay the extra admission fee as he earned Rs. 5,000 per month and had to provide for his entire family. Disheartened by the violation of rules in the government schools, students have started to get admission in the private schools. As a result, the ratio of admission in state owned schools had decreased to 50-60 percent.
The sources in the education department said that the admissions could drop to less than 50 percent, if the management of the government schools did not mend their ways and improved their standard of education. They said that many private schools and colleges had sprung up in the major cities which were providing good education, and the parents who could afford the expenses would usually send their children there.
Poor students and parents have demanded of the authorities concerned to take notice of the situation and punish those making undue money while paying no attention towards improving the standard of their institutions.
