Punjab private schools given seven days to revise fee: minister
April 09, 2020
LAHORE: Punjab Minister for School Education Dr Murad Raas has said that the government has given a seven-day deadline to private schools to revise fee challan and offer 20% discount in fee for April and May, reported The News.
Speaking to the media, Dr Raas said that private schools had flatly refused to give 20% fee discount during a meeting held in this regard recently. “The government has decided to wait for seven days so that the management of schools can make arrangements during this lockdown and issue revised fee challans,” he said.
The provincial minister added that it was sad to see school owners who were millionaires and billionaires were not ready to offer relief to people during these testing times.
The minister also requested that parents must not deposit fees till the schools issue revised fee challans, adding that after seven days the government would announce a complaint mechanism against private schools.
Read also: Low-cost private schools may not be able to survive coronavirus pandemic
Private schools in Sindh to challenge orders
All Sindh Private Schools Association representative Haider Ali on Wednesday said that the association would challenge in court a directive of the Sindh government that asked private schools across the province to grant a 20% concession in tuition fees to students in the wake of the coronavirus crisis that has forced the closure of schools.
On the directives of Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani, the Directorate of Inspection and Registration of Private Institutions Sindh (Dirpis) on Tuesday made it mandatory for all private schools to grant a 20% concession in tuition fee for the months of April and May.
The education minister has taken this decision in order to provide financial assistance to the parents affected by the lockdown in the current coronavirus pandemic, a statement said. In his statement, the minister said no private school would terminate the services of the teaching and nonteaching staffers during the lockdown while the administrators were bound to pay full salaries to all staffers.
Ali, while speaking to Geo Pakistan, said that private schools in the province were already charging a reduced rate. "Private schools in Sindh teach approximately 3.3 million students. They are already charging a reduced fee, they cannot reduce it more," he said. "We will challenge the government order that stipulates schools offer a 20% reduction in fees," he said.
Originally published in The News
