Daily Times

LAHORE: Private education institutions are known to fleece parents and students with exorbitant fees. The desire on part of students and parents to have quality education provides justification to schools to demand high fees from them. However, these schools are always looking for more opportunities to collect more money from parents. One such case is that of Lahore Grammar School (LGS) which is using the helplessness of students in the wake of their upcoming Cambridge Checkpoint Examinations, to make them pay more if they wish to be prepared for the said exams.

LGS recently came up with a crash course programme designed to prepare students for the checkpoint. Although, carrying out such a programme is for the benefit of the students, the way it is being carried out is evident of the fact that the school’s sole interest is minting money from students. The crash course is mandatory for students who have registered for the exams as a regular candidate through the school. The most problematic thing is the fact that students are charged Rs 3,000 per month for this programme with it being held after school hours.

This means that students have to pay Rs 3,000 per month to the school otherwise they would not be registered as a regular candidate. Moreover, they have no option to drop out from this programme if they are unable to pay the charges for any reason or if they want to prepare on their own. Another problematic thing is that this programme is being carried after school hours. It is the responsibility of the school administration to provide students with the necessary training for any exam within school hours. It is highly irresponsible and unfair of them to conduct a training programme after school hours and in addition, make it mandatory for students to pay for it. If a student does not pay for the programme for any financial reason or if he or she wants to prepare on his own, he would not be registered as a regular candidate through the school. It is totally unjustified on part of the school to not provide the required training for the exams in its regular school hours and then demand extra money for a mandatory programme held after school hours while threatening them with cancellation of their registration as a regular candidate.

This programme just shows that the Lahore Grammar School does not care about the interests of its students and only aims to use the upcoming examinations to mint more money from them. If they actually cared about their students, they would have provided necessary training within the school hours. It is beyond one’s understanding why the school needs an extra programme for doing something that it should do during the six regular hours of school. Parents need to question the school as to why, when they are paying the school to teach and train their children for six hours, does the school need an extra hour for this purpose and why it needsto charge extra money for this programme. It is highly unethical for the school to make this programme mandatory while demanding money from parents and then threatening them with cancellation of registration in case of failure to pay the required amount.

Such programmes are just examples of schools’ money-making antics. This can be evidenced by the fact that LGS has also made it mandatory for students to pay for and attend a bonfire night arranged by the administration. LGS is just one such school with other schools having similar programmes. These programmes are just meant to take advantage of the anxiety that students and parents face in the anticipation of exams such as the Cambridge International Examinations.