Sindh slaps 55 schools with show-cause notices for not slashing fees by 20%

KARACHI: The Sindh Education Department on Tuesday served show-cause notices to 55 schools for not complying with the government’s orders to reduce fees by 20% in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the department’s spokesperson said.

“The schools have not paid their employees and did not reduce their fees by 20%,” the spokesperson said, adding that the department had sent show cause notices to 30 private schools two days ago for violating the government’s orders.

“So far, we have sent notices to 85 schools,” the official said.

The spokesperson warned private schools to pay their staff within a week or else strict action would be taken against them.

The government reiterated that private schools were directed to slash their fees by 20% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

On April 6, at the instructions of Education Minister Saeed Ghani, the Directorate of Inspections & Registration of Private Institutions, Sindh (DIRPIS) had issued a notification, making it mandatory for all private schools and intermediate colleges to reduce tuition fees by 20% for the months of April and May.

Likewise, private schools were also ordered to pay the salaries of teaching and non-teaching staff in full and to not terminate their services during the current lockdown. These decisions were taken to provide relief to parents as well as employees in the private education sector.

Until April 11, however, the directorate received some 834 complaints from various areas of the province. The figures issued on Monday showed that 631 complaints were registered in Karachi Division, 59 in Hyderabad, 47 in Sukkur, 33 in Shaheed Benazirabad, 29 in Mirpurkhas and 35 in Larkana.

These complaints were filed by parents, teachers and non-teaching staff members, all of whom informed the directorate that the private school owners were not willing to comply with the provincial government’s orders.