PESHAWAR: The parents of hundreds of students enrolled in Peshawar Model School for Boys-V are perturbed over forceful shifting of their children to another school located several kilometres away.

The administration of PMSB-V has conveyed to the parents recently that their children have been shifted to the newly constructed PMSB-VI on Phandu Road, which is around five kilometres away. PMSB-VI is the sixth branch of Peshawar Model Schools system, a chain having branches in several districts, accordingtoparents.

`It is unethical to shift my child to another school withoutmy consent,` the father of a student said wishing not to be named. The man, a resident of Garhi Atta Mohammad, said that he had admitted his son to PMSB-V two years ago because it was located at a distance of only two kilometres from his village.

`Other standard schools are far away from our residence that`s why I decided to admit my child to PMSB-V,` he said. He added that the newly established PMSB-VI was around eight kilometres away from their village and the area was not safe.

`With thrice increase in the distance, now the Suzuki driver is insisting to double the monthly rent from the existing Rs2,000 for pick and drop of students,` a resident of Achar village told Dawn. He said that some people made education a lucrative business. They were earning millions of rupees per month without paying tax, he alleged.

The parents also met the owner/director of PMSB-V, Ghayyur Sethi, and requested him to reverse his decision in thebest interest of students but in vain.

`The owner rudely asked us to admit our children somewhere else if we are not agreed to shift our children to PMBS-VI,` a resident of Bahadar Kallay said. He added that it was routine practice of owners of Peshawar Model School system that they shifted the old students to the newly constructed schools to ensure its success.

An official in elementary and secondary education department said that usually parents were reluctant to admit their children to the new school that`s why the administrators of Peshawar Model School system forcefully shifted the old students to the new one. In the absence of an effective authority for regularisation of private schools, the owners were exploiting parents, he added.

The official said that owners of private schools didn`t listen to education department regarding implementation of government policies, fees and textbooks taught in their schools.He said that recently around 3,500 private schools turned down the decision of education department to allow their students to appear in the centralised assessment for grade-V for checking quality of education.

The education department was yet to take any action against the private schools defying its decision, he said.

The owner/director of Peshawar Model School system Ghayyur Sethi was not available for comments despite repeated attempts by this scribe.

Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Peshawar Chairman Dr Fazl Rehman, when contacted, expressed ignorance about theforcefulshifting of the students from one school to another.

Mr Rehman, who is responsible to look into the affairs of the private schools, said that parents should submit written complaint with him in that regard. `I will call the parents and the school administration to resolve the issue in my office,` he said.