- Parents protest over ‘unjustified’ decision, demand action by provincial government
Several private educational institutions in Rawalpindi and cantonment area have decided to collect additional fees from students for security arrangements.
According to details, the additional security surcharge will be collected along with the fee for the month of February 2015. However, the Association of the private educational institutions has described the decision as uncalled for and has asked the education department to take action against such institutions.
The provincial government had earlier ordered all educational institutions to improve their security, including deployment of security guards and installation of CCTV cameras. Instead of meeting the additional burden, some educational institutions have shifted it on to students and their parents.
Some reports suggest that a few private schools have increased the fee between 20-30% in the name of security, since it seemed like a good opportunity to fleece parents.
Parents have strongly protested with school administrations and at the same time asked the provincial government to direct the education department to physically check the fee increase of these schools from their record and penalize those who are out to mint money in the name of security and education.
Some parents stated that most of the teaching staff in these schools, though educated, is not trained and lacks experience. They said that these schools are exploiting the educated unemployed youth by hiring them at low salary while charging students the same rate as other, highly professional, institutions.