Minister urges parents to pay school fees.

LAHORE -- Punjab Minister for School Education Murad Raas on Monday appealed to the parents to pay fees of their children to help the school administrations pay the teachers' salaries.

The Punjab government had closed all educational institutions in the wake of coronavirus pandemic till July 15, declaring the period as summer vacation.

Mr Raas tweeted, 'My request to the parents is to pay school fee bills of their children. If you do not pay the fees, the Honourable Teachers won't get paid. Let's all try to help each other out. Specially for parents whose children are in the huge majority of schools charging Rs5,000 or less.'

The government had also directed all private educational institutions to allow 20pc concession in school fees to the students for two months - April and May - keeping in view the financial crunch people were facing because of the lockdown.

Parents Action Committee members said the government should first implement the Supreme Court order [issued in June last] about the fee cut because the government was yet to determine the fee structure and then implement the 20pc concession.

All Pakistan Private School Federation President Kashif Mirza had rejected the fee concession arguing that it would not be possible for the schools to cut fees by 20pc because most of the institutions were operating in rented buildings.

He said the schools would also not be able to pay salaries to around one...