Rising voices: Parents gather outside press club, demand reduced tuition fee

Protesters demanded a monitoring body to scrutinise the increase in private schools’ fees

KARACHI:

Parents took to the streets once again and held a rally outside Karachi Press Club on Tuesday to protest the alarming raise in school fees.

"We are not only protesting against the current fee raise but also for the fee raised in the last five years by private schools," said S*, a parent whose son studies in The Generation's School. It is sad to see that these schools do not listen to anyone, the father added.



No action taken by any officials or the Karachi commissioner's notice can make the schools change their decision, the worried parent said.

The campaign, which few parents of The Generation's School started, has grown city wide in a week's time. Many parents from other major schools also joined them in their fight against fee raise through Facebook and Twitter trends.

Read: (In)expensive education: School fee hike irks parents

"Not only parents from The Generation's School but also from Beaconhouse School System, Falcon House Grammar School, Happy Palace and many others are protesting here today," said S.

Parents demanded a monitoring body to scrutinise the increase in private schools' fees. "In the last five years, the fee raise has gone beyond imagination," said another parent. "Why is there no one to ask them the reason behind this," the parent added. "Our demands are the same for the past week," said Quratulain, a mother of two children.

She told The Express Tribune that schools are talking to individual parents who are approaching the school. However, no discounts orchanges have been made in the fee structure yet.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th,  2015.