Private schools annual summer vacation fee

Private schools collecting three-month fee in advance
Lahore, May 26: In the wake of upcoming annual summer vacation, most of the private schools have started collecting fee for three months in advance, adding to the miseries of inflation-stricken people.

The issue surfaces each year and the government seems helpless as no regulatory body is in place to monitor and control the affairs of private schools.

It is generally believed that owing to this unbridled working of private schools, those involved in the business have been fleecing people as much as they can.

A number of people said many private schools had started demanding advance fee for summer vacation in lump sum which was creating a lot of problems for them.

Ali, a citizen whose two sons go to a private school, says, "This is quite impossible for me and many other parents like me to submit lump sum fee for three months in advance."

He said the government should take notice of the issue and direct private schools to charge fee on a monthly basis. Jamshed Khalil, another citizen, said many of the private schools were functioning in rented buildings and had to meet expenses, including utility bills, teachers' salaries and other expenditure from the fee they received from students.

However, he added, if they still charged fee for summer vacation in monthly installments there would not have to bear any loss. It is pertinent to mention here that the public has also been raising concerns over many other "money-minting" initiatives of private schools such as mandatory purchase of stationery, books and uniforms and even school bags either from the schools or from prescribed shops. Besides this, the other point of concern frequently raised by the stakeholders is related to collection of "funds" under various heads. Due to the abovementioned issues, the stakeholders are critical of the government's negligence in streamlining the affairs of private schools and urge it to take up the issue immediately.

There are also those who believe that it seems impossible for the government to introduce any new legislation to control private schools as many of the big networks of schools are owned by politicians or their families.

It is pertinent to mention here that while the government has announced annual summer vacation from June 1 to August 14, 2010, most of the private schools have announced their own schedule contrary to the public schools.

This mockery of the government's instructions also speaks volume of its own inability to set up the much-needed regulatory body for private sector schools.

When contacted, EDO Education Dr Muhammad Arshad said the government had issued clear-cut instructions regarding collection of fee by private schools on a monthly basis.

He said at the time of registration, the schools gave undertaking that they would collect fee on a monthly basis. He further said that if under a mutual agreement, parents and school managements agreed for two or more months fee in lump sum the department could not take any action.

Dr Arshad said that if anyone had complaints regarding the collection of three months' advance fee by any private school, he should contact the EDO Education's Office for action against the school. The news

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PU Date-sheets announced
Lahore: Punjab University Examinations Department has announced the written date sheets of Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Third Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Fourth Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Final Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009 and BSc Medical Laboratory Technology, Supplementary Examination 2009.

According to the notifications, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Third Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009 will commence from June 17 and will conclude on July 1, 2010. Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Fourth Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009 will commence from June 10 and will conclude on June 24, 2010. Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm-D), Final Professional, 2nd Annual Examination 2009 will commence from June 14 and will conclude on July 1, 2010.

BSc Medical Laboratory Technology, Supplementary Examination 2009 will commence from June 18 and will conclude on July 7, 2010 while practical exam will commence from July 13 and will conclude on July 29. The nation

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PU results
Laohre: The PU on Tuesday declared the results of MA Education (elementary/secondary/general), Part-I, annual examination for 2009 and MEd (General & Science), annual examination for 2009.

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PU fund- raising drive
Lahore: Punjab Univeristy acting vice-chancellor Prof Dr Jamil Anwar Chaudhry has constituted a seven-member committee for fund raising and collection of relief goods for the internally displaced persons of Gilgit-Baltistan and Hunza valley.

The committee is headed by Prof Dr Haris Rashid, director of the Centre for High Energy Physics.

Speaking to the committee members, Prof Chaudhry said the varsity faculty and students had always rendered a leadership role during any calamity or crises in the past. Considering the requirements of the affectees, he said, the committee members should undertake a massive fund-raising campaign to extend them maximum assistance in this hour of need. Dawn

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'Universities competing for top spot around the globe'
Lahore: Universities all over the world have entered a race to be the best educational institutes and have expedited their research programmes to ensure their place in the list of the world's top universities, University of Malaya Professor Seik Weng Ng said in a meeting with Government College University Vice Chancellor Prof Khalid Aftab on Tuesday.

Weng is one of the top scientists in the filed of X-ray Crystallography and has a record 1300 international publications and has won hundreds of science awards. He is visiting the GCU on the request of the university's Chemistry Department on a one-week professional training programme for the staff and research students on the recent advances made in the filed of Crystallography. Daily times

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HEC seeks report on illegal revisions of results
Lahore: At last the Higher Education Commission and Punjab Higher Education Department have sought written reply from the University of Education about the repeated revisions of results, and the faulty examination system of the University.

Because of this, earlier the University of the Punjab had stopped the UoE degree holder students from attending masters' classes, while having a clear stance that the HEC had not approved the UoE graduation degrees as the UoE was awarding dual degrees in two years.

On the other hand, the UoE administration is of the view that 'everything is being done legally, and as per the rules of the University'. However, it admits of 'improving the system since the University is in its initial years'.

According to sources, Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif – upon complaints reaching his office – had ordered the HED to sought written reply from the UoE regarding its flawed examination system. The source confided that the UoE had submitted reply to the HED, while University was yet to do same for the HEC.

While referring to the reply, the source revealed the University administration had maintained that committees were constituted for the revision of results since a lot of students got failed, and they were protesting.

"This is not actually the case since under no circumstances, the UoE can revise the results, as it has been laid out in a rule, which states, 'A script once marked cannot be re-evaluated'. This is a blatant violation of the University rules," averred the source, while adding that the UoE was yet to follow any set pattern in almost all spheres of its working.

Another source, while referring to the problematic areas of the UoE examination system and especially the 'tradition' of revising results, confided that last year as per the notifications, BS (Honours) Chemistry Part-I result, a total of 29 students took the examination, and all of them were declared 'fail', while in the revised result, 9 got passed.

"This result was revised thrice, and ultimately 27 students were declared 'pass' as if magical wand has worked for them," he enumerated one example, while further pointing out that result of BS (Honours) Chemistry Part-II was revised for once, MSc Chemistry Part-II for thrice, MSc B.Ed Part-I for twice, BSc B.Ed Part-I for four times, BS Ed Professional Second Year for five times, BS Ed-IIIrd for thrice, MSc Maths Part-I for twice and MSc Chemistry for twice again.

"Marks can be recalculated, but results shall not be revised at all, and the latter case amounts to committing crime by the University," maintained the source.

When Controller Examination Dr Shaban Ali Bhatti – another man from the PU like the Chancellor Mirza Munawwar Sultana – was requested to comment on the accusations, he squarely refused to do so 'on telephone', and asked the scribe to meet him personally. On the other hand, when Ms Sultana was asked about the issue, initially she straightaway declined to having known the issue at all. "There is nothing in my knowledge regarding the revision of results," she said explicitly. However, later she admitted to having revision of results for the betterment and benefit of the students.

"This year, no revisions have been done. Moreover, as far as the revision of results is concerned, we have adopted proper measures and regular procedures by involving the bodies concerned," she said, while concluding that the UoE working was transparent to the maximum extent. The nation

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UHS BDS result
Lahore: The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has announced the result of Third Professional BDS supplementary examination. A total of 54 candidates from five affiliated dental colleges appeared in the exam out of whom 47 passed and seven failed. The pass percentage remained 87. The news

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GCU adopts HEC rules for PhD
Lahore: The Government College University Lahore has adopted the new rules laid down by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) for admission in the PhD programmes, said a press statement issued here Wednesday. According to the new rules, all the candidates interested to get admission in GCU PhD programmes must qualify Subject GRE International or GAT whichever is applicable.

GCU Registrar Sahibzada Faisal Khursheed said that the GC University Lahore is one of the fastest growing universities in the country which is offering PhD programmes in Botany, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Clinical Psychology, Economics, English, Environmental Science, History, Mathematics, Persian, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Statistics, Urdu and Zoology. He said GCU produced 19 PhD scholars only in the filed of Mathematics in 2009 which is a big achievement. F.P. Report

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Revised biology book for class-IX
Lahore: The Punjab Textbook Board has notified a revised textbook of biology for class-IX. The book has been authored by Dr William George and Dr AR Sheikh.

The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education has directed the heads of educational institutions to ensure that their students should prepare for the class-IX annual examination for 2011 according to the new textbook.

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Students decry outages
Bahawalpur: Students of the Quaid-i-Azam Medical College on Tuesday boycotted classes and staged a protest against unscheduled power loadshedding in the city.

The students came out of their classrooms and demonstrated in front of the college auditorium. They said their study was suffering because of excessive loadshedding and warned Mepco of 'extreme steps' if it failed to check outages.

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Another 1,000 college teachers to be recruited
Lahore: The higher education wing of the Punjab education department has decided to recruit another 1,000 college teachers to bridge the gap between the student/teacher ratio to an ideal calculation.

This was stated by Ahad Khan Cheema, Secretary Higher Education Punjab, while talking to this correspondent on Tuesday. He said already the process of recruitment of 2,000 college teachers including professors, associate professors and assistant professors in BS 20, BS 19 and BS 18 respectively was in final stages. Of these 920 posts were of assistant professors and the remaining ones of associate professors and professors who were being directly recruited on the posts through Public Service Commission. Never before these posts were filled directly thus opening opportunities to the eligible persons to get these senior slots of teachers by competition. In the past these posts were occupied by promotions through departmental promotion committee but mainly the posts remained vacant due to slow process.

The professors' recruitment will overcome the shortage of senior teachers who were badly needed for administrative as well as teaching posts at graduate and postgraduate levels.

The new posts of 1,000 teachers entirely included lecturers in BS 17. The Punjab Public Service Commission will recruit the lecturers in all compulsory and elective subjects being taught in colleges. Thus the total number of college teachers in all categories will rise to 3,000. The process of recruitment will be completed before the start of next academic session from September 2010.

Ahad Khan Cheema said the dream of quality college education could not be fulfilled until the shortage of teachers was removed. He said after posting of the required number of college teachers, vigorous monitoring and evaluation campaign would be launched to check the classes according to the time tables. The feed back of students would also be taken into account to evaluate the quality of classroom instructions. Ahad Cheema said quality education was an ambitious plan of the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. It would create a revolution in education if materialised according to his vision and all out efforts would be made to achieve this goal. The nation

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LHC stops merger of schools in Baghbanpura
Lahore: Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday stopped merger/shifting of various government schools into one school in Baghbanpura and also sought a detailed reply from the Punjab Education Department by June 11.

The judge also stayed demolition or reconstruction of four primary schools, which had been shifted to the premises of another government school. The judge directed Executive District Officer (EDO-education) Dr Muhammad Arshad to restore the shifted schools to their own premises. On Tuesday, Dr Arshad informed the court that the schools were located in rented buildings and were being merged or shifted to the schools having their own buildings within a radias of half a kilometre, and that it would cause no difficulty for the students.

The judge remarked that the government had enough money to construct the Chief Minister's Secretariat, but could not provide these schools with their own buildings. The judge inquired from the EDO whether he would like to send his children to a school, which had not possessed its own premises.

The judge restrained the government from demolishing schools buildings and directed the EDO to file a detailed reply on the matter by June 11.

The judge was hearing a petition filed by Shahid Mahmood and other parents of the children studying in Government Girls Primary School, Bhogiwal that was merged into Government Girls Middle School, Modholal Hussain, about one kilometre away from Bhogiwal area. The petitioners' counsel submitted that the Lahore Cantt district officer education on April 20 passed an order/notification to shift or merge 12 government primary schools, which created problems for parents and children.

The counsel submitted that 282 students of Government Modern Girls Bhogiwal, between five and nine years age group, were unlawfully shifted to Government Girls Middle School Modholal Hussain that was located at a long distance. He submitted that another three primary had already been merged into the Government Girls Middle School Modholal Hussain. The counsel submitted that only six PTC teachers were there in the Modholal School for over 600 students. Daily times

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Student faints due to teacher's torture
Burewala: A student fainted due to torture by his teacher here on Tuesday. Abdul Ghaffar, a resident of Chak 255/EB, told the police that teacher Shamaila locked his seven-year-old son Rehman Ghaffar, a student of class one, with five other students in a room and tortured his son with a stick. He said that his son received injuries, fell unconscious and was shifted to Gaggo Mandi Rural Health Centre. The police have started investigations. Youth dies of heat wave: A student died of heat wave at Chak 505/EB here on Tuesday. Humaira Akram, a student of Government Girls High School, fainted in the scorching heat and taken to Burewala THQ Hospital. She was referred to Multan's Nishtar Hospital due to her critical condition where she died. The news

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