Private schools: Govt urged to take action against ‘exploitive tactics’

KARACHI: Private schools have become a ‘white-collar mafia’, looting parents with both hands, said Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor here Sunday, demanding from the government to save the parents from their exploitation.

He said due to the poor standard of government schools, a majority of parents is compelled to send their children to private schools which loot them with both hands. These schools force parents to buy uniforms, books and notebooks from their designated stores that charge double and triple rates for these items. These schools besides getting very high fees also extort money from the parents on pretext of different functions and activities.

He said these schools don’t give free admission to a certain percentage of students as per the government policy. These also don’t get audited their accounts to avoid tax. The government fully knows about these malpractices but the corrupt bureaucracy in education department patronises these schools, said Altaf Shakoor, demanding audit of the assets of owners of these private schools who evade tax and other responsibilities.

He said many of these schools are working on amenity plots of different cooperative societies, which is an illegal act, as these schools are not social welfare entities but purely commercial organisations. He said the concerned departments don’t take any action against these schools which is tantamount to depriving citizens, especially belonging to low-income segment, of their rights.

Shakoor demanded the NAB, FIA, anti-corruption and education department to take stern action against these private schools and stop their exploitation to give some breathing space to parents.

He asked to improve the standard of government schools also. He demanded using artificial intelligence (IA) methods to improve the performance of the government schools which are the last shelter for the children of poor families.

He said our education system needs a complete overhaul as it is not producing trained manpower to cater modern job market needs. He demanded making vocational training a part of education at every stage.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025