School fee case: ‘Parents should not be punished for govt’s failure’

ISLAMABAD:

A lawyer for the ‘aggrieved parents’ has told a court that the government should rein-in private schools from charging ‘excessive fees’.

While concluding his arguments in the school fee-hike case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday, Barrister Qasim Wadood, representing several parents, said that commercialisation of education and ‘racketeering’ must be prevented.

He said that the parents should not be punished for the “procedural impropriety and criminal negligence of the government”.

The counsel argued that education was the basic right of every child under the constitution and the right to education supersedes the right of individuals to carry on unfettered businesses.

He argued that if a public utility such as electricity could be regulated, so could professional and educational institutes.

Wadood said that educational institutions must function for the betterment of citizens as the opportunity to acquire education cannot be restricted to the rich. In addition, he said “capitation fees” under different heads constituted a patent denial of a citizen’s right to education.

“The capitation fee is nothing but a price for selling education,” Wadood said while citing one of four judgements of the Supreme Court of India.

He said every institution was free to devise its own fee structure, but the same should be regulated to prevent profiteering.

On Tuesday, another counsel for parents, Saadia Noreen, urged the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) to issue gazette notification regarding fee structures to permanently resolve the issue of “undue fee hikes” by private schools.

She had argued that publication of the notification in the gazette would not only help parents, but would also give legal backing to the issue.

The counsel concluded their arguments before the single bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

After the arguments, the court directed the deputy attorney general to present arguments in the hearing on Thursday (today) before adjourning.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2016.