Parents want check on fees in private schools

Islamabad-Decent education is the right of every child but parents are at a loss when they see private schools becoming money minting machines with no regulatory framework to check fees.

Many schools charge fees, which only the elite can afford. Such schools are charging fees in thousands of rupees and that kind of sums gives a lot of parents anxious nights.

Parents say not only the fees are high but these schools go on extracting money from their pockets on one pretext or the other.

Talking to APP, a mother of a child Zeeshan who is studying in Roots School System said the school administration is charging high fee and there is no relaxation for anyone. Besides, they extract funds for several occasions, which is very hard to manage for the people who hardly bear the fee expenses.

She runs a parlour to make ends meet and has three children.

Sharing her first hand experience, she said that she went to his son’s school to get one-month fee waived off due to tight financial conditions. “The school flatly refused to accept my request,” she lamented.

Shamim, mother of a four children said no parents want to compromise on the education of their children but prevailing price hike has limited the options and one has to look for the institute charging less fee.

Private schools are extracting fees which do not match with the services they provide in term of education and environment and there must be check on the fee charged by these schools. When a parent asked for his comment on the performance of regulatory authority, she said it is good that the government realizes that parents are getting rubbed up the wrong way. But realization of an issue is not enough we want results of government actions, she said.

A mother, whose son studies in Beaconhouse School says she is satisfied with the education that her child is getting. The boy studies in class four and the school charges Rs5500 per month.

It is a fact that vast majority of people cannot afford the fees demanded by the schools as the fees increase by Rs1,000 every year, she said.

The difference between the quality of education and expenses in different private schools create a sense of deprivation among those students who cannot afford to study in better school, she said.

The Islamabad Capital Territory, Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Promotion) Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) is responsible for registration, regulation and promotion of the privately-managed educational institutions.

Talking to APP, PEIRA (Islamabad) Chairman Atif Mahmood Kayani said that the authority was formed in 2006 but the then government did not give it the powers to keep check on the fees charged by the private schools.

Now a committee of the parliament is discussing whether to give the authority powers to supervise the fee structure of schools, he said.

The authority is a welcome sign for parents who feel the financial crunch and want somebody on their side when it comes to decisions on private school fees and the facilities offered by the educational institutions.

According to the National Education Policy approved last year, it is in the government regulations to encourage private schools to offer admission and education services to 10 per cent needy but meritorious students free of cost.

But have you heard of elite schools offering free of cost education to a single student? Contrary to the law, the private schools do not register with the regulatory authorities working under the provincial governments.

These schools do not comply with the regulations rather openly flout them.

According to the national policy document, registered private schools often charge more fees than they are authorised to (the average household annual expenditure per student in a private establishment is reported to be four times greater).

Existence of isolated parallel systems of public and private education in the country is a cause for concern as it creates inequitable social divides.

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