Owners rally for schools reopening

LAHORE:Dozens of private school owners, teachers and other staff members taking out a rally demanded the government for early reopening of schools and a special financial package to save low-cost private schools from severe financial crisis.

The “Save Education” rally organised by All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association (APPSMA) was also attended by representatives of private colleges and tuition centres. The rally started from Nasser Bagh and culminated at GPO Chowk where the organisers also spokes on the occasion and expressed their serious concerns over the schools’ closure during the on-going second wave of Covid-19. The speakers were of the view that low-cost private schools were badly hit by the closure as majority of the parents were not paying monthly fees while the campuses were receiving hefty utility bills and various kinds of taxes. They also said because of absence online education facility academic activities of the students were also being badly suffered.

Talking to The News, APPSMA president Kashif Adeeb Jawadani said that every sector except education sector was open during the second wave of Covid-19 whereas only schools were strictly following the government’s SOPs related to Coronavirus.

He said this implementation of SOPs was also acknowledged by high authorities before the second closure but only education institutions were closed while every other sector was open.

He said that low-cost private schools demanded special package as the prime minister announced for some sectors including construction sector during the recent lockdown.

He said low-cost private schools were unable to pay rents, hefty utility bills and various kinds of taxes. He said as most of the parents were not paying fees and such schools were in great trouble as besides these expenses schools had to pay salaries to teachers and other staff. He demanded the government stop education authorities from imposing hefty fines on private schools for alleged violation of closure. A traffic mess was observed on The Mall for quite some time. However, the rally participants dispersed peacefully after recording their protest.