Private schools seek interest-free loans

QUETTA: Leaders of private schools in Balochistan have called for interest-free loans for private educational institutions so that they recover losses incurred during the coronavirus-induced lockdown across the province.

“Private educational institutes are suffering from severe financial crisis due to closure of school across the province amid lockdown. Therefore, the provincial government should provide interest-free loans to overcome the turmoil,” said a leader of private schools Bahadur Khan Langove in a press conference at Quetta Press Club on Sunday where he was accompanied by Saleem Nasir, Ali Kausar and others.

Langove criticized the inaction of Balochistan government, saying the government officials in a meeting in April decided to work on a strategy to get private schools out of the crisis. However, no action has been taken so far even after the passage of a month, he lamented.

Keeping in view the increasing cases of coronavirus across the province, Langove said, “We demand closure of educational institutions till July 15 but if the provincial government decided to open them earlier, we would symbolically hand over keys of schools across Balochistan to the governor, chief minister and district administration officials by May 12.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2020.