Private schools in KP continue fleecing parents

PESHAWAR: The pandemic is yet to go. Academic activities are yet to start. But it seems that the private educational institutions have not learned any lesson from the testing times as they have started fleecing parents.

Majority of the schools have already collected fees during the Covid-19 when their institutions were closed. The remaining ones have issued fee challans to the students for all the five months.

The most surprising are the schools which are offering fresh admissions but charging fees since April and there is no one to take notice of this injustice. The school owners claim that they have been collecting the fees in line with the Private Schools Regulatory Authority’s (PSRA) notification.

The authority on the other hand rejects their claim saying that they have not issued any such notification. “I want to enrol my four kids in a new school. I have already acquired certificates from their old schools. But the management of the school where I want to enrol my kids forces me to deposit all the charges since April this year along with a handsome amount as admission fee for each kid,” said Wajeehur Rahman.

“This is strange and ridiculous. I cannot afford it. This is not my case alone many parents like me are facing a similar situation. The authorities should take notice of it,” he demanded. The parents and their kids are sandwiched between the schools they are going to leave and the ones to which they seek admission.

The former don’t issue them certificates until giving them fees for the months during which the schools were closed, while the latter are also demanding fees for the same period. Such schools, contrary to their claims, have nothing to do with promotion of education. They are only concerned about their business interests. They only mint money, said Maaz Umar, another parent.

Payment of salaries and rents of their buildings is a mere excuse they give for fee collection. The schools, which have not paid salaries to the staff during the schools’ closure and established on educations plots in the most expensive areas of the provincial metropolis, are the worst exploiters.

A number of schools have occupied most expensive educational plots in the posh Hayathabad township. But they are the worst exploiters. They don’t give any relief to parents, who too were badly affected by the Covid pandemic and closure of business activities.

The authorities concerned are the least bothered to take notice of the situation. A senior official of the Education Department told The News that they have been barred by the government from talking to media.

He said that the education minister was the only authorised person to give government version on such matters. Bu the minister concerned remain inaccessible on all his possible contacts.