Late penalty: Government teachers threaten to protest if BISE does not waive late fee

Board charges up to Rs2,000, which is much more than other districts like Sukkur and Larkana.

HYDERABAD:

Government Secondary Teachers Association (GSTA) have threatened to stage a sit-in, in front of Governor House in Karachi against the collection of late fees by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) Hyderabad. 

The board has nine districts in its jurisdiction, out of which five were wrecked by floods. The late fee till October 7 was Rs1,000 but it was increased to Rs2,000 from October 18, for class nine.

“Not only is the amount unjustified,” said Zameer Khan who is the president of the GSTA, “it is about six times higher than other districts and puts a financial burden on students from flood-hit areas.”

He was addressing a gathering of teachers, students and parents who demanded that the late fees be waived. Khan said that it is ironic that the students of government schools, on which the government spends billions of rupees, will have to pay.

According to him, the examination boards of Larkana and Sukkur do not charge such a hefty amount for late submission of examination forms. “We held a meeting with the board officials in which we decided that only Rs100 will be charged,” he said. “Although they agreed they later reneged on their word.”

Khan claimed that BISE enrolled between 15,000 and  20,000 students so far, while in 2010 the total number of students was over 50,000 from nine districts. “It suggests that more than 60% of students will end up paying the punitive late fees which is 600% of the actual enrollment fees of Rs320.”

An official of the BISE confirmed that up to 15,000 students were enrolled so far. However, the assistant controller of the board in Hyderabad, Masroor Zai, said that they exempted the students from flood-affected areas from paying the fee completely. “They will be charged a late fee of only Rs100 if they submit a letter attested by the principal of their school,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ashraf Bin Muhammad of the GSTA said that the protests will spread to all the nine districts which come under the board’s control. “If our demand is not accepted we will consider staging a sit-in outside Governor House in Karachi after October 27,” he warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 18^th, 2011.