Fee foibles: How to pay for free education

Locals protested after govt girls and boys schools in the province were found charging students with a fee.


Express May 23, 2011

JOHARABAD/ BAHAWALPUR:


Locals have protested after several government girls and boys schools in the province were found charging students with a fee.


“All the government’s boasts about providing free education in public schools are hollow. My daughter’s school did not charge a formal fee but they have been charging students to pay the electricity and water bills!” said the father of nine-year-old Sarwat, Bashir. Sarwat, who attends the Government Girl’s Public school in Mubarakpur, Bahawalpur has been charged with a monthly fee of Rs2,500 like all her classmates. “When I complained to the administration they told me that they didn’t care about free education because they still needed to pay their bills,” Bashir said.

“They told us that we could either pay the bills or our children would come to a school without teachers, electricity or water,” said another parent, Mahnoor Sial.

Similar complaints have also been lodged in Sargodha. District Commissioner Jawad Rafiq Malik has issued orders to the Khushab district government to probe into the matter of several government schools demanding Rs50 from every student. These orders have been issued after a joint application was filed by the area residents.
“Apparently several school officials have been charging students and the money is either spent to pay bills or to line their own pockets,” Malik said. “This practice needs to stop immediately or people will lose faith in the system. With the universal enrolment drive in progress we cannot afford to alienate people from sending their children to school,” he said.

In Bahawalpur’s Mubarakpur area, residents said that students at government higher secondary school Mubarakpur were being charged an admission fee.  “Several students were still charged Rs500 for admission even though this is against the rules,” said parent of ninth grader Jawad, Hasan Abdullah. “The problem is that the government has announced free education without giving us enough funds to accommodate it. We still don’t have enough funding to hire teachers and maintain the school but we are no longer allowed to charge even a nominal fee,” said Mubarakpur Government Girls Secondary School administrator Razia Kaleem.

Locals in several districts have submitted applications to several district offices protesting against schools that continue to charge students a fee. “There are some schools that are charging admission fees and others that are charging kids to help pay their bills but none of this is legal. Free education means that there can be no charges and if we are serious about it then we need to take action,” said a school teacher Shameem.

Locals told the EDO (Education) that the schools also refused to issue receipts. “I had to pay Rs800 to register my three children in school but they didn’t give me any documentation or a receipt,” said Mubarakpur resident Bilal.

“Another pretext they have begun using is to ask students who don’t meet ‘merit standards’ to pay Rs800 for admission. My daughter is in class 1, what merit standard is there?” said Sadiqa Bibi.

Students and parents in Mianwali protested that three local schools were charging students to sit on chairs. “They said that there was not enough furniture and my daughter had to pay Rs100 a month to ‘reserve’ a chair,” said Chak 972BG resident Mujahid. Schoolchildren told The Express Tribune that ninth grade students were charged Rs130 if they wanted invigilators to help them cheat in their exams. “We paid the money and our names went on a list and the teacher would only come to the desks of students who had paid the sum to help them with any question they were struggling with,” said ninth grader Zain.

Government Boys School principal Sadiq Zahid has refuted the allegations. “There has been no cheating and no fees have been charged. This is all media propaganda,” he said. EDO Education Naseem Zahra said that the department was looking into the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23rd, 2011.

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