Education department spares violators by only taking an undertaking

Rawalpindi
Instead of taking stern action against private and public educational institutions for charging security fee from students, the District Education Department, Rawalpindi, has spared violators by only taking an undertaking from them that they would not repeat the 'offence' in future.
Parents who have already paid extra money in the name of security fee have protested against what they termed mild attitude of the concerned authority.
On the directions of Punjab Chief Minister Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the city district government, Rawalpindi, started a crackdown on private and even government schools for charging security fee from parents. The concerned authority took action after receiving numerous complaints from parents.
Executive District Officer (Education) Qazi Zahoor-ul-Haq told ‘The News’ that some private and even government schools were taking extra charges as security fee. “The violators are submitting an ‘undertaking’ making a pledge that they will not charge extra money from parents in future,” he said. The violators have also promised that they would adjust extra fee paid by parents in the next month fee. “Several schools, including Sapient Hall School, Pre Cadet School and Sagri Public School have submitted ‘undertakings’ to me and promised that they will not charge security fee from students in future,” he claimed.
Qazi said that some parents have filed written complaints and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Sajid Zafar Daal directed him to take immediate action. “We will not only impose fines but also cancel registration of schools if they take extra charges as security fee again," he claimed.
Earlier, the Punjab Home Department issued directives to government and private schools to take stringent measures for security and an advertisement was also published in newspapers in this regard.
It merits mentioning here that in that advertisement the orders were that no educational institution will charge additional fee in the name of security to students. However, despite these directives, some private educational institutions increased their fee to the extent ranging between Rs100 and Rs1,000.
Parents said that charging of additional fee in the name of security was financial burden on them. Whenever the matter is discussed with the management of these schools they say that if parents have to keep their children in their respective schools then they would have to pay these additional charges.