‘No University, No Fee’, Students came out to protest

A protest was staged by the university students from across the country outside the Higher Education Commission (HEC) office against online classes and semester fee.

The students demanded that universities should waive off the fee for the semester and cancel the plan of online classes. The students also demanded promotion to next semester without an examination.

The students were holding placards which had slogans against HEC writer. The protest blocked the Islamabad Service Road and caused a traffic jam.

The placards read “No University, No Fee”, “We want promotion” and “Say No to Online Classes”.

The students slammed the universities for charging semester fee even though there were no classes due to Covid-19 institute closure.

Earlier, On April 22, Chairman Higher Education Commission (HEC) Tariq Banuri had asked the universities to call off the semester in case of extension in the lockdown. In the detailed report published in April, he had stated that If lockdown restrictions are lifted by early June, universities can return to business as usual. But if there are further delays, there will be no choice except either to switch to online education or to abandon the semester.

The officials had reported that efforts are underway to improve the online learning in the country as it was the first experience and it will take time for improvement.