Parents condemn private schools owners

PESHAWAR: Parents staged protest rallies Monday in the provincial metropolis and other parts of the province against the private schools owners for not accepting the directives on fees and other issues and closing the educational institutions for two days as pressure tactics.

Two rallies were staged in Peshawar. One was arranged by the All Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Parents Association and the other by the local government representatives which was attended by the members of the civil society as well.

The protesters were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans against the private schools managements and in support of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority.

The speakers said the two-day strike by the private schools was totally illegal and amounted to defiance of the law and court orders. They said the private schools were charging high fees from the students and raising the same on annual basis, caring little for the parents who were forced to pay these ever-increasing charges.

The speakers praised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led provincial government for taking a bold step in the right direction by forming Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority.

They said it was the first time that a government had taken a bold step and tried to regulate the private schools which were fleecing parents in one way or the other. The protesters fully supported the move by the government to bound the private schools on the fee structure, annual raise in the charges, sibling discount, fees rate during vacations and others steps such as inspection and performance monitoring.

The speakers asked the government not to bow to the blackmailing tactics of the private schools owners such as strike and take action against the private schools owners for wasting the precious time of students by resorting to strike and closing down the schools for two days.

The speakers requested the courts to take notice of the, what they believed were, pressure tactics being employed by the private schools. Parents also staged in other major towns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to express anger at the attitude of the private schools owners.