Staff Reporter
Parents of the students studying in the private educational institutions have welcomed the decision of the government of bounding private educational institutions in the federal capital to provide 20 percent discount in the fee charges back from April till reopening of schools and demanded implementation of the decision in true letter and spirit.
The decision of 20 percent reduction in the fee of private educational institutions charging fee above Rs 8000 was announced by the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood recently in response to the demand of parents.
“The decision of 20 percent fee waiver is a right and justified move since the classes were being digitally conducted for a short time period.
My son is attending two hours class during which I assist and teach him more than the teacher, bought laptop and pay internet charges”, Ejaz Rehman, a parent of a child studying in one of the leading private school said.
Talking to media, he said, “Since my child has been studying online, the school is not bearing any expenditures of my child like electricity, usage of resource materials (purchased by parents), extra activities, library and computer usage etc. so paying full fee charges is unjustifiable”.
“I have enrolled my son in one of the leading private school of federal capital at the time before the first wave of COVID-19 and he studied mostly digitally but the school did not offer any respite to the parents who were already suffering in terms of business losses and health risks”, Irum Shaheen, a mother said.
She said how anyone could compare the digital classroom to the physical one when teacher of my child was throughout taking online class from her home not from school. She only attended the school occasionally for interacting with the Headmistress.
She said “I and my husband are working and it is hard for us to manage online class of our child but we ensure our availability everyday by compromising our official responsibilities”.
Commenting on the criticism of some private schools association over the fee-reduction decision, Aslam Butt, a father of three children said, “It is difficult to bear education expenses of the children during the prevailing price hike situation in the country.
The expenditures of physical classrooms cannot be compared with the digital ones at all”.
“We as parents are sacrificing our daily routine for assisting the children during their online classes and for completion of their home works too.
Besides buying laptops for my three children, paying internet charges and collecting their resource materials from schools every week, I have to stay with them to assist them as they are new to this digital learning world”, he said.
Amina Farrukh, another mother whose child is studying in the top notch school in F-7 said, “I have been paying Rs 17,000 per month for a two-hour virtual class of my child with no utilization of schools resources at all.
The schools administrations must implement the decision of fee waiver in true sense to give relief to the parents like us”.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training, Shafqat Mahmood in his tweet stated that “In response to the demand for fee waiver during school closure, it has been decided to give 20 percent reduction in fee starting from April till schools reopening. This is applicable to all schools in Islamabad charging over Rs 8000 per month fee”.
