Private schools continue to fleece parents in Lahore

LAHORE: Due to the contradictive and ineffective policies of the School Education Department (SED), parents have been left at the mercy of private schools. In addition to being billed for the months of June and July, schools are also collecting money for homework during the summer months.

Previously, SED had decided to initiate action against schools in order to ensure transparency in the fee collecting process while also taking action against unregistered institutes. The crackdown was meant to prevent schools from extorting money from parents under the guise of providing quality education.

However, instead of implementing this crackdown, the department constituted a committee which consists of private school owners. The committee was supposed to provide the department with recommendations on how private schools are supposed to function.

Parents accuse private schools of forced books, stationery purchases

In collusion with officials from the department, the committee managed to prevent action against private schools.

Officials from organisations representing private schools have denied this. However, several parents have claimed that they received circulars from schools asking for the cumulative tuition for June and July. They claimed that homework during these months was also being charged.

The parents claimed that schools threatened to double the charge if they failed to pay the tuition. Education officers said parents can submit written complaints against private schools and assured that strict action would be taken against schools found guilty of malpractice.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2019.