CM May Waive Exam Fee 'gradually'
Lahore, July 07: Financial implication to the tune of Rs3 billion a year involved in abolishing the examination and other fees being charged by all education boards is apparently compellingChief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to abolish examination fee for matriculation exams only and not all the fees as 'enthusiastically' desired by the provincial chief executive at no less than two occasions in last couple of months.
"Abolishing registration and examination fee for matriculation examination for both public and private sector students will fulfill Punjab government's slogan of free education up to matriculation level," said sources in the education department.
Sources said the higher education department had moved a summary separately explaining financial implication for abolishing registration and examination fee for both matriculation and intermediate annual examinations as well as other miscellaneous fees.
When contacted, education minister Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman confirmed that it would not be rational to abolish all registration, examination and miscellaneous fees with just one stroke of pen. He said the chief minister would probably abolish registration and examination fee being charged for matriculation examination only.
It may be mentioned here that the chief minister had hinted abolishing boards' fees in a meeting at the Chief Minister's Secretariat on May 16 and later directed the higher education authorities at another meeting at the same venue on June 18 to implement his decision "within a day".
Terming fees charged by all the eight education boards as "fleecing the masses", Sharif had said that "a few millions of rupees to be generated from students, can be generated by the government itself". Prospecting students as well as their parents, however, are yet to see the realisation of the chief minister's 'dream' so far.
Soon afterwards, the higher education department worked out financial implication by colleting revenue details from all the eight education boards and calculated it to the tune of Rs3 billion a year.
As the department moved the summary to the chief ministers, the officials concerned also briefed the chief minister that it would not be rational to abolish all fees with one stroke of pen. They said the abolition of registration and examination fee for matriculation examination could be rational, recommending that the miscellaneous fees, which also run in millions, should not be abolished.
They also said that there was no point in abolishing symbolic FA/FSc registration and examination fee at individual level, when students were paying regular tuition fee for their studies in both public and private sectors.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the chief minister has constituted a large committee headed by columnist and MNA Ayaz Amir to finalise recommendations on developing a uniform education policy. Dawn
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