KARACHI, March 13: A number of private schools in the city have once again started charging the so-called “annual charges” and are threatening the parents to pay it in a given period of time, otherwise, their children would either not be allowed to take the annual examinations or their exam results would be withheld.

Similarly, the Class IX and Class X students of private schools have also been asked to submit the annual charges by March 20 and if they failed to do so they would not be issued with admit cards of their ensuing annual examinations scheduled to begin on March 24.

Although the private schools’ illegal trend of demanding the so-called annual charges from their students had been going on since long, it was stopped in September last year.

On September 16, the Sindh education department’s directorate of private educational institutions issued a circular, warning the managements of private schools not to charge any other fee under any other head, including annual charges and recreation fee etc, except the tuition fee approved by the directorate.

In addition to the monthly tuition fee, private schools were also allowed to charge the admission fee to the extent of three times of one the monthly tuition fee at the most.

However, most of the parents who talked to Dawn said that although the Sindh chief secretary and the provincial education department’s directorate of private educational institutions had recently described the so-called annual charges as “illegal”, the managements of private schools were compelling them to deposit the fee of their children under the head of annual charges before their examinations.

Arguing that there was no provision of such a fee in the Sindh Private Education Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001, and (Amended) Act-2003 and Rule-2005, they said that school administrations had already charged two months’ summer vacations (June and July) fee in advance and were now forcing them to pay the so-called annual charges as well.

An elderly person whose three children were studying in a private school in Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block 12 said that at a time when prices of essential items and utility bills had skyrocketed, the private schools were bent on financially burdening the parents by demanding the so-called annual charges despite the fact they had already taken tuition fee of summer vacations in advance.

Another parent who telephoned from PECHS Block 2 criticised the management of the private school where her two daughters were enrolled.

She said that they (the school management) should realise that it was not justified on their part to demand the so-called annual charges from the salaried class people as they had recently paid two months’ summer vacations fees and transportation charges of their children in advance despite the fact that they did not receive their salaries in advance.DAWAN