Provincial Minister for Education and Literacy Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, while taking serious notice of increase in tuition fees by certain private schools, has assured the parents of the children studying in these schools that their legal grievances would be addressed properly and in this regard, a three-member committee under Private Institutions director general had been formed, which would submit its report in a week time.
This he said while talking to media at his office on Friday. Regarding increase in tuition fees by private schools, the minister said that a petition was in a court and unless it was decided, the private schools could increase fee only by 7 per cent.
He added, “No one is above the law and parents should complain in black and white to us, then Education Department will definitely take action against those institutions which are violating the rules and regulations.”
The minister said, “There are rules and regulations for private educational institutions and they are bound to follow them.” He said that the letters had been sent to private schools in this regard and a meeting with associations of private schools would be convened after Eidul Azha to resolve the issue.”
He assured the parents that they would also be taken on board and their right interests would be safeguarded. “There is a standing committee of Sindh Assembly on education and its meeting will also be held soon to discuss issue regarding education across the province,” he concluded.
Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) President Shamim Ahmed Firpo has requested Sindh Minister for Education & Literacy Jam Mehtab Dahar to take strict notice of the looting being carried out by most of the private schools, who have substantially raised school tuition fees by around 10 to 16 per cent, making it almost impossible for the lower middle class and middle class segments of the society to meet their kids’ schooling expenditures.
In a statement issued on Friday, he said that a delegation of perturbed parents visited the Karachi Chamber to complain about the massive looting being carried out by private schools, responsible for exorbitantly raising the school fees as per their desire against the honorable Sindh High Court’s decision which allows 5 per cent increase.
While requesting KCCI to convince the authorities to take stern action against such schools, the parents said that exorbitant fee hike by schools has gone beyond their affordability, forcing them to discontinue the education of their children.
They said that parents recently staged a demonstration to strongly condemn the rise in school fee by private schools but to no avail as no action has been taken so far which was the basic reason why they felt it necessary to knock KCCI’s doors for assistance. Firpo, after listening to the grievances, said that the unprecedented annual increase in tuition fees was a sheer violation of the court’s order that prohibits raise in tuition fee by more than five per cent.
He mentioned that last year in October, the Sindh High Court, while rejecting the petition of city’s private schools for increasing their fee by more than five per cent, directed Sindh Education Department to enforce the restricted increase in fee and submit quarterly audited accounts report of the private schools in the court.
Firpo stated that Karachi city was well-known for being a city of Educated People but it appeared that the private schools wanted to transform the city from an educated to illiterate city. “In the ongoing era of inflation, parents are striving really hard to get their kids educated in better schools but if the situation goes on like this, it will be impossible for parents to send kids to such expensive schools where imparting education has become a lucrative business,” he opined.
He cautioned that a new trend had emerged nowadays which was really disturbing as parents were preferring to only send boys to a better school whereas the girls were being sent to inexpensive schools where quality of education was really pathetic. “In some cases, girls are even disallowed to go to schools as their parents are unable to afford the schooling expenditures of three to four kids which is really worrisome as it promotes gender discrimination,” he added.
