While the government schools are below standards,
the private schools take full advantage of this fact and rip off parents.

It is an undeniable fact that had not private institutes taken over the educational sector when they did, our condition today would have been beyond recovery. But upholding the typical characteristic mode and attitude that seem to have become an unspoken rule, opportunities to cash in on and ruthless exploitation are never let pass.
This has become a norm with private institutions too, especially the established networks. Over the last two decade, the private sector has gotten into education in a fairly big way filling a imperative gap left void by the government, both at the primary and higher level of education. One feels the strain when outrageous fees for private schooling have to be paid, or when children fall sick after drinking contaminated water from the school’s filtered cooler or when the principal calls just before the exams to inform that the child’s failing. What should be done? Protest indignantly? Or accepting it as a part of private education with slumped shoulders?
It seems to be forgotten that education is not a bonus conferred by the state; rather it is the fundamental right of every citizen. It’s the states obligation to educate its people - not just the few from the upper stratum but all of them, irrespective of location and social category.
The government functionaries and educationists have never been weary of paying melodramatic lip service to the grand cause of educating the nation, but never have practical steps been taken to increase the literacy rate or improve the standard of education. Had the government institutions been as good as they used to be once upon a time, the demand for private institutions, that have now become indispensable, would not have been so great. Practically in service in the sellers' market, these institutions have found it possible to capitalize on the parents' needs for quality education for their children. Thriving in a laissez faire setting without competition from superior government schools, these private institutions have not had any system of check. While government authorities have carried on with their speeches thinking all was being said and done, there was more said than ever done and meanwhile a total revolution has taken place in the field of educating. It is more then visible that successive mandarins that saunter the corridors of power have miserably failed in this tremendous duty.
The crucial stages of education are primary, graduation and professional level and all these are dominated by private groups that have given rise to a mushroom growth in every locality with the connivance of the education department. Not only are they callously fleecing the parents but also, while some institutes are total scams others are not even registered. Private schools, which send their students for O-Level, A-Level and graduation examinations of the foreign boards like London, Cambridge or Oxford, avoid being registered dreading harassment and prying from the education bureaucracy. Majority of these schools consist of cramped bungalows or houses without proper classrooms, playfields or any kind of recreation facilities, yet their fees are sky-high. To name a few, University College of Islamabad, Collage of Accountancy (Isb), SKANS School of Accountancy (Lhr), Islamabad Law College and National College of Business & management Sciences (Isb).
Obviously the government alone is incapable of catering to the growing requirements of education, but the least that they can do is pull back on the carte blanche given to private institutes that continue to loot parents. Let alone the fact these unregistered institutes were put up and began functioning, the government even slept through when they expansive and opened branches. Parents are likewise liable for maintaining discreet silence and then causing a racket when things get out of their hands.
I can say without fear of contradiction that the authorities have no clue as to how many private institutions are operating within their jurisdiction. A current example is that educational department teams inspected three private schools in Karachi on May 4 and found them flouting government rules. A school was found charging Rs2500 to Rs4000 as monthly tuition fee, Rs22000 as admission fee, Rs22000 as caution money and was unregistered and therefore its existence illicit.
It goes unsaid that the fees charged are exorbitant starting from Rs2000 to Rs5000 per month for primary education going on to Rs6000 to Rs10,000 for A-Levels. The mockery is that most of the schools, like Beaconhouse, charge fees for the summer vacation period from students before the beginning of the vacation.
The pricey course books are the students own purchase and on top of that schools have made it a compulsion to use its custom made copies and registers with the school names imprinted on the cover; these contain minimum pages to ensure continues purchase and are much more expensive then the ordinary copies and registers hence add to the financial burden. It hardly fair for parents already struggling to pay the private school fees!
Visits to these schools and enquiry resulted in a flood of complaints by the students. Apparently there is continues water shortage and lack of hygiene in toilets. Power failure (thank to WAPDA) has become a norm in the hot summer months, and the worst is that there are some classes that have tiny windows causing poor visibility and suffocation. Boys added that it had become a trend to bring their own sport equipment from home because the sports-rooms are not properly equipped. Some students said that there is no heating in the classes during winters despite heaters in their staff rooms, offices and classrooms in other campuses. That most of the computers in the labs do not work properly, nor are there Internet facilities available. At Primary schools it was heart rending to see little boys and girls pulling behind them heavy bags crammed with books.
A repeated protest is from the Rawalpindi students that they have to pay the same or nearly the same, yet they are nowhere near the facilities or campuses offered in Islamabad despite continuous promises. Some sports enthusiasts nitpicked that their schools has inter-regional sport events and their campus did not even have enough space to go further then table tennis and volleyball. The school canteen sported unhealthy and greasy munchies in an unsanitary manner while their Islamabad canteen catered things starting from hot coffee to brownies. A girl added that it was that they couldn’t bring doggy bags from home; it’s just that the difference doesn’t seem fair. Another boy declared that somehow or the other, their best senior teacher shift to the Islamabad campuses while living in Rawalpindi, which is a disappointment since juniors look forward being taught by them after listen to the praise from graduating seniors.
The schools I surveyed are none other the prestigious Frobels, City School, Beaconhouse and ISAS. The bottom line is that considering the fees charged the least these schools can do is try to provide generators, heaters and tend to other such demands. Networks that have been established for years should up-grade themselves and provide locker systems to relieve the book-burden that even following the timetables can’t do. There should be no extra charges for computer and science labs no matter how minimal, I believe the thousands otherwise in the fee challans should cover those up.
While some schools like Beaconhouse and City have started teacher-training programs, there are still some institutes where the teachers are graduates, master degree holders, MBAs or other professionals. Holding degrees and the knowledge behind them doesn’t endow them with teaching abilities and tactics or the approach of coaching for foreign boards. They should be under no circumstances appointed to senior classes unless trained.
Finally our government has fluttered open its eyelids upon the tribulations a laissez faire policy in education can throw up after two decades of giving free rein to these institutions in matters of fees, curriculum and textbooks. The private school conundrum that made the headlines in Sind and caused uproar has subsides owing to the summer vacations. Apparently parents filed complaints against schools with the cells that the Sindhi education department set up. The official response has been that three inspection teams are set up. The Dawn reported raids and crackdown of private schools while it is believed that new laws will be implemented and legal notices will be issued. The question of the policy to be adopted by the education authorities is not just the concern of the Sindhi provincial government as it will affects all the provinces because the situation is identical all over.
February this year, the Federal education minister Zobaida Jalal make public a package of incentive, still being scrutinized by the legal and finance ministries, for private educational institutions. This "Public-Private Partnership Package” will ensure that land is offered at reduced rates for institutions, they will not be charged utility bills on commercial rates rather concessions will be given and there will be exemption in some taxes including those involved in import of equipment and machinery. This package is to help private institutions lower their fee structure and allow easier access financially.
What has to be kept in mind that this laudable profession should not be undertaken as a money-minting operation; and if it hasn’t been, then how have certain bank accounts and life styles flourished? The task at hand is grooming and educating generations that should remain the top most priority, not just the privileged lot who can afford expenses but also all those who are denied opportunities due to financial problems. We should keep in mind that a nation can never progress, in our case resurface economic and social morass, if the priorities are wrongly placed, which they have been so far.

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