Parents of children who go to this private school in Karachi have had enough. Starting a trend that says #NoFeeTillLowFee – parents have boycotted the school till they mend their fee structure. A private school in Karachi called Generations catered to at least 50 cars of very angry and frustrated parents who have had enough of emptying their wallets at the school’s hands. After reaching the school’s vicinity, teamed up for a cause – the parents also took to social media with their protest campaign and earned a very positive response from budding parents from all over the country. Against the fee hike a protest rally was also organized. The protest was carried out from KDA roundabout in North Nazimabad till Ziauddin Hospital. Parents and students who partook in the rally, were protesting against the rise in fees by private schools.Participating in the rally, parents and their children said that they had rejected the rise in fees by private schools. They also said that private schools had raised their fees annually by Rs 1,000 to 2,000. Whereas the monthly fees had also been increased from Rs 200 to 1,000.They also said that the Department of Private Education Institute had not issued the notice to increase fees structure and the fees had been increased not as per the rules. The protesting parents made it clear that they would not pay the added fees amount, as children holding banners and placards, with slogans against increase in educational fees were written, kept protesting. The fact is that over the past couple of decades in particular, the private-school sector has grown to such an extent that it has affected virtually every section of society — regardless of income levels — that has children in school.Whether the institution charges Rs1,000 a month or less, or even tens of thousands of rupees, unannounced hikes in fees — often by unacceptably large margins — tend to be the norm. The problem is not that no effort has been made towards regulation. Tuesday’s protesters invoked the Islamabad Capital Territory Private Educational Institutions (Registration and Regulation) Act 2013 and called for interventions to rationalise fee structures and clamp down on unfair practices. In Sindh and Punjab, too, efforts have been made in this regard. However, the mere passing of legislation — as the situation in Islamabad shows — is not enough. Urgently needed is an effective implementing and regulatory mechanism that acts as a check on the operations of private schools and ensures compliance with standards. The schools’ view is that people are free to send their offspring elsewhere. In practice, though, this is hardly viable given that private schools’ associations function to promote mutual interest, and the public-sector education system is in a shambles, both in terms of quality and the pressure on it. This is a country where the young heavily outnumber the mature, and where enrolment and literacy rates are already abysmal. Shouldn’t the federal and provincial governments’ focus be on doing all that is possible to remove barriers to education, while repairing the public-sector education system in earnest?
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