ISLAMABAD: A large number of parents staged a protest in the city on Sunday against the private schools which suddenly and arbitrarily increased fees of schoolchildren.

They gathered outside the National Press Club in the heart of the city and marched a short distance to vent their anger against the private schools `operating like a mafia`.

They said they had to turn to private schools because government schools did not provide `quality education.

Some parents have filed complaints with high government offices that while the inflation rate is between 5 and 7 per cent, the private schools have increased their fees by up to 18 per cent. Complaints have been made to the president and the prime minister, the education minister, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court and chairman Federal Bureau of Revenue.

Almost half of the school-going age children in Islamabad are said to be receiving education in private schools. Although government has established the Private Educational Institute`s Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) to regulate and monitor them, the schools are run as business concerns. `PEIRA has been completely ineffective in the absence of a chairperson,` noted one parent.

Mohsin Khan, who works in a private organisation and whose two children were studying in montessori and class III, said apart from paying Rs25,000 per month in tuition fee of each child, the school had been charging Rs17,000annually and a tax of Rs1,900 every month for each child.

`Now the fee has been raised from Rs13,500 to Rs16,500 per month.` he said.

`I, together with some other parents have sent a legal notice to the school asking for thereasonforsuchahugeincreasebutthe school management replied that it was not liable to answer us but said it might reduce the fee by 10 per cent next year.

However, he opted for taking his children out of the school and admit them in another one `with same facilities but 50 per cent less fee,` Mr Khan said. Another protester, Shazia Rashid Khan, said the fee charged for her son studying in FSc (intermediate) was `quite reasonable` but had to `pay a lot` for her daughter student of class VII in a private school.

`There are no political motives behind our protest,` she said. `We just want to ensure that the new generation gets quality education at a reasonable fee, which should be half of what is being charged today.After our legal notice, the date for depositing fee has been extended till September 16,` she said.

`Private institutions charge parents Rs20,000 for a set of textbooks which is available in the market for Rs5,600.

Some schools teach American syllabus. We have learnt from customs that some non-government organisations provide the required books to schools free of cost but theycharge for them nonetheless and what is more the students are not allowed to take them home,` she added.

Ms Shazia is an MBA in finance from a British university and has a contingency plan for her daughter. `I expect the school will expel her and I will teach her at home and will spend the saved amount in fees on music and on her health,` she said.