The private school fee drama might be finally coming to a close. Supreme Court has demanded that the Islamabad High Court should issue a decision on the pending case of private schools hiking their fees.
A notification was issued by the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) regarding the Registration and Fee Determination Rules 2016 in the June last year.
The notification described the fee structure the private schools should follow and no school would be allowed to charge above the prescribed level. It stated that the maximum amount schools can charge is Rs 8,350 for Matric, FA and SC while Rs 12,525 will be charged for O and A Level respectively.
School fees sky rocketed in September 2015, necessitating a regulatory framework for private schools. Parents were outraged by the increase and the government had to intervene to calm their protests and demonstrations.
Government then regulated a fee structure which was then challenged in IHC where the court ruled in the favor of the private schools and gave them complete autonomy over their fee structure.
PEIRA further defined more rules for the private school sector which were also challenged in the IHC and the ruling was given out that no new rules were to implemented until the final decision was made. This gave the private schools a free ticket to do as they pleased.
Officials working on the case say that the schools have been taking unfair advantage of the delay in decision and PEIRA has been made powerless in the process despite the large number of complaints being filed.
The schools which have been highlighted in the hiking of prices are Beaconhouse, City School, Headstart, Roots Millennium, Roots International, and Roots School System. The fees went up by 20-30% last year and a further 20-40% this year. One of the parents complained that the fees before the summer vacations was 22000 which increased to 36000 over the vacations. The situation is worse for those who have more than one child enrolled in these schools.
Since PEIRA could not fix the problem, the parents took the case to Supreme Court and a three member bench of the apex court comprising Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, Justice Mushir Alam and Justice Sardar Tariq Masood was formed which has directed the IHC to submit the final decision and close the case by the end of September.
-via Express Tribune
