ISLAMABAD - The exorbitant prices of textbooks and stationery with an advent of new academic year have annoyed most of the parents who hardly manage their resources to provide quality education to their children.
The parents lament the fact that there is no authority to check the uncontrollable prices of textbooks and stationary, saying that it has limited their purchasing capacity in prevailing price hike situation.
Talking to APP, Humaira, a mother of three school going children said they are already worried due to raising dearness day by day and increase in prices of textbooks and stationary items, are a big issue for the parents who have to pay a large amount on the start of new session.
There is no criteria of raising fee in private schools and the owners also charge money in the name of admission fee, examination fee, funds etc at the start of new classes, she said.
“Last year I purchased the Class-II sylabus and other stationary for around Rs 3,000 which has now exceeded upto Rs 5,000.
She added earlier parents use the books of elder children for their younger ones but the private schools have made it compulsory for every child to have his own new books which is an extra burden on parents pockets.
Arshad Majeed, a public servant said, “our salary raises once a year as per the announcement of the budget and most of the government employees do not have any other source of income to manage the fee of their children as well as textbooks and stationary charges.
The private schools have a number of tactics to charge extra money from parents without bothering, it is not easy task to manage this money after every two to three months, he said.
“No one wants to compromise on the education of their children and these school owners take advantage of the situation.
As a result, parents not only cut short their own needs but also neglect few basic needs just to bear these extra expenses”.
Aisha, studying in class 7th, whose father died few years back said, “My mother is doing a job at a private firm and she has to bear all the expenses of our family alone. In past I used to take books of my
cousins or seniors but due to this new trend of charging huge amount of stationary charges from each student by private schools, I feel guilty of putting my mother in a difficult situation”.
Its not easy for parents especially women headed families to bear such expenses as males can manage extra money by doing small business or investments which is not possible for women in our society, she said.
The owners of private schools are of the view that they are providing best education to the students and contributing a major share in country’s development through educating the new generation.
They said they are charging fee according to the facilities, learning environment and standard of education they are providing for the children.