ISLAMABAD: After enjoying free transportation facility for over a decade, the students from class 1 to matric of public-sector schools run under the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) will now have to pay Rs1,500 as transport charges from next month.

Students failing to pay the dues will not be given the pick-and-drop service in school buses.

According to a circular issued by the School Management Committee (SMC) on Oct 27, available with Dawn, the FDE had informed it a few weeks ago that as per the federal cabinet’s direction last year and later meetings held by the SMC and College Management Committee (CMC) and meeting of the principals with area education officers, it has now been decided that the students will have to pay Rs1,500 as transport charges from Nov 1, 2022.

After the passage of the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2012, it was decided that free of cost education and transport facility would be provided to the students from class 1 to matric. The fee and transport charges were already being collected from students of prep and intermediate.

The decision has disturbed many parents as they are already facing the brunt of inflation as they will have to pay transport fee for up to four children.

Majority of schools run under the FDEhave two shifts of buses and the parents sometimes have either to pick or drop their children themselves, but now they will also have to pay the fee.

Mohammad Aurangzeb, father of two school-going children, told Dawn that paying Rs1,500 for each of their children would put an additional burden on the parents’ pocket.

“I will have to pay Rs3,000 every month. Moreover, majority of buses pick and drop students in two shifts and sometimes they had to wait at school for over an hour to get the bus in the second shift. Now, I will have to pay the fee and will also provide pick or drop to my children,” he said.

Mr Aurangzeb said on the one hand the government had been encouraging people to get their children enrolled in schools while on the other the decision to put extra financial burden on parents would discourage them to send their children to schools.

“I fear the decision will increase the number of out-of-school children,” he added.

Another resident, Shahid Nazir, said there were parents who were sending four children in school buses and the decision would put a burden of Rs6,000 on them.

“I cannot understand why such decisions are made which affect the poor. Everyone knows that only those parents get their students enrolled in government schools who cannot afford the education expenses of their children,” he added.

Mr Nazir said the government should have generated the amount by taxing the elite rather than targeting the poor. He appealed to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to take notice of the matter and ensure that the middle and poor class would not suffer anymore.

Another parent of a first year student said he had paid bus fee for his daughter at the start of the session, but a circular had been handed over to his daughter that she would have to pay Rs1,500 from Nov 1.

The FDE had on Oct 14 empowered the school and college management committees to run school buses on a cost-sharing basis, in accordance with the decision taken by the federal cabinet last year.

“In pursuance of the cabinet approval on Feb 2, 2021 regarding operationalisation policy for buses in FDE…and in accordance with the Right to Free and Compulsory Education and School and College Management Committee Rule 2021, the buses will be operated by SMCs/CMCs. The expenditure and revenue will be managed locally by SMCs/CMCs with notified monthly rates for students,” reads the notification.

An official of the FDE, requesting anonymity, said that in April this year, the finance ministry had rejected a summary seeking the creation of posts of 171 drivers and 214 conductors and now the SMCs and CMCs would hire drivers and conductors with their own money.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2022