Private school principal makes off with enrolment fee, leaving 43 students in the lurch

The academic year of 43 students intending to appear in the ongoing matric board exams is at risk of lapsing as their principal has shut down the school and gone into hiding after collecting the enrolment fee, The News has learnt.

The matter came to light on Thursday when some 25 ninth and tenth graders of Genius Academy Secondary School, a private educational institute in Garden, along with their parents gathered at the office of the Board of Secondary Education Karachi (BSEK) and demanded that the admit cards to be issued so that the students can sit for the exams.

The parents of the 43 affected students had filed a petition in the Sindh High Court earlier in the day pleading that it intervene to save the academic year of their children by directing the BSEK officials to issue the admit cards. The court had allowed the petition and sought replies from the BSEK on Monday.

When contacted, officials of the board told The News that they had neither received the forms of the said students nor had they been contacted by the said school’s administration.

“We have assured the parents that if they provide the examination forms of their children to the board, we will issue admit cards and will allow them to appear in the ongoing exams,” said BSEK Chairman Prof Dr Saeeduddin.

He added that the parents have admitted before him and other board officials that even though the principal of the school, Aziz Khan, had collected the enrolment fee, he did not submitted the exam forms of his students and has since then disappeared.

According to him, the parents of the affected students had met him and apologised for approaching the court against the board’s officials. Saeeduddin added that the students would’ve been issued admit cards, had their forms been submitted on time.

He criticised the school administration and the parents for presenting “misinformation before the court and in the media”, and said that the board reserves the right to take action against the school administration for their misleading parents.

The BSEK chairman further said that a similar problem was reported to the board in last year’s exams as well from a private school in Machar Colony. He urged parents to be mindful of the type of school they choose to enrol their children in.

In order to prevent the affected students’ year from lapsing, Saeeduddin then issued his approval to the relevant officials to receive the exam forms and issue admit cards. The parents pledged to withdraw their petition from the high court and to register an FIR of fraud against the absconding school principal.

Falling standards

Nighat Khan, a former teacher and assistant administrator of Genius Academy Secondary School, who was also at BSEK told The News that the principal had closed the school on March 4 and the perturbed parents had approached her a day before the exams began. So, she accompanied them to the board to resolve the matter.

“On behalf of the parents, I have registered a complaint application against Aziz Khan, the principal, at Alfalah police station,” she said, adding that an FIR will be registered next, once the enrolment issue was resolved with the board.

Khan further said that she left the school a month ago because she was not being paid her salary. She added that when the parents sought her help, she tried to contact him, but found all his numbers to be switched off.

Shahid Mehmood Waja, whose daughter is due to appear in Matric Part II exams, said that teachers had not been taking classes in the school, so he had arranged private tuition for her. He added that he will also register a fraud case against the principal who had made off with parents’ hard-earned money. Several attempts were made to contact Aziz Khan on his three numbers but he could not be reached.