Boards too poor to waive tuition fee for flood survivors

Tuition fees for flood survivors will not be waived, all seven educational boards of Sindh say unanimously.

KARACHI: Tuition fees for flood survivors will not be waived, all seven educational boards of Sindh have said unanimously on Saturday.

Boards are self-financing bodies and they cannot afford to forgo their tuition fee unless the government provides compensation, officials in the Sindh education department said.

They said the chairman of the committee of educational boards has sent a letter to the Sindh education department, making it clear that their financial position did not give them the luxury of charity.

According to them, 60 per cent of the money received in tuition fees is used to pay salaries, 30 per cent is used in expenses paid to the heads of exam duties, paper assessments and checking, while five per cent goes to stationery and the remaining five per cent on petrol, telephones and other overheads. The letter also states that the boards collectively contributed Rs3.5 million for flood-affected people in the province.

The only way the education board can waive the fee of flood survivors is if the government provides them extra funds through local or international donor agencies.

Sources said the letter was sent after a detailed meeting of the committee of educational boards was held at the office of the chairman of the Board of Intermediate Education, Karachi a few days ago.

The meeting was held on the directives of the steering committee of the Sindh education department. The steering committee had directed all educational boards to waive the fees of flood-affected students.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2010.