Federal Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood on Friday urged the Lahore University of Management Science (LUMS) to reconsider its decision of increasing its fee by 41 per cent.
Terming the decision ‘unacceptable’, Mahmood said in a tweet that LUMS is a premier educational institution of the country and needs to take lead in providing relief to students rather than burdening them and their parents with abrupt fee hikes.
“Management needs to reconsider,” he stated.
The minister further reiterated that Supreme Court has already devised a formula for 5 to 8 per cent increase in school fees.
“[However], universities may have different compulsions and may need a somewhat greater increase but a sudden 41 per cent increase by LUMS is beyond comprehension,” Mehmood wrote on twitter.
Last week, the university administration made an announcement to increase the annual fee by 41pc. Following which, a debate was witnessed about the issue on social media prompting the university to issue a clarification and explain the management’s point of view.
According to the statement, LUMS fees for 2020 were determined before Covid-19 that is entirely consistent with prior years and took into account extraordinary increases in inflation, energy costs and currency devaluation.
“The increase determined for 2020 was 13pc which we will monitor in determining the next fee card. Furthermore, previously, a per semester blanket fee was being charged for students taking between 12 to 20 credit hours.”
May I also kindly request the Minister to also urgently look at the issue of private school fee which has been hanging fire for a very long time due to the obdurate behavior of the private school cartels in spite of the Higher courts decisions in the matter. The private school exorbitant fee issue literally impacts millions of school children in Pakistan and their parents. The parents have been making efforts and have also repeatedly sought the Government’s and the Minister’s attention for the resolution of this pressing matter. The Minister and the Government are once requested to urgently provide relief to millions of its citizens in the shape of lower fee for both the private schools and institutions including the LUMS students.