Fee hike: Regulatory body dismisses proposal

Private institutions bemoan additional costs of registration, increased rents

ISLAMABAD: Private schools regulatory body has said that there will be no increase in fees without its approval.

Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) spokesman Qaiser Majeed Malik said this while talking to APP, the state-run news agency.

Taking notice of the reports that private schools have announced to increase the fee, he said that the regulatory body’s chairman would soon hold a meeting with the members of the private schools’ association to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, Abdul Waheed Khan, information secretary of Private Schools Association Islamabad chapter (PSAI), told the agency that private institutions needed to increase fees to meet their expenses.

He said that PEIRA had raised the registration fees for the private schools from Rs20,000 to Rs50,000. Hence, the schools have to raise the students’ fees.

He demanded that the federal private schools should be controlled by Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) rather than the regulatory authority.

He said that private schools were already paying a substantial amount to PEIRA after every two years, which has been raised by 50 per cent, to be paid every year.

He added, “Only a few schools can afford these hefty charges by PEIRA as for most of the schools it is difficult to pay them.”

He also said that house owners raise the rent of the school buildings by 10 percent every year which pushes schools to further increase fees.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 14^th, 2016.