SHC restrains private schools from increasing fee

The Sindh High Court (SHC) restrained on Wednesday the management of two private schools from charging tuition fee hiked beyond 5%, as decided by the provincial government.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Munib Akhtar, also issued notices to the provincial education department’s secretary, the director of education and administrators of Foundation Public School and Head Start School to file their comments in this regard by the next date of the hearing to be later notified by the office.

The petitioners, who are parents of the students, had taken the administration of the private schools - Foundation Public School and Head Start School – to court for increasing the monthly tuition fee beyond the 5% prescribed in the law. They also named the provincial education department’s secretary and director of education as respondents in the plea.

The petitioners said their children were currently studying in different classes at the said private schools, where the management had suddenly increased the tuition fee for different grades. It was stated that the students’ parents were informed through letters informing them about the fee that has been exorbitantly increased.

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The parents told the judges that due to the unprecedented hike in the fee their children will be deprived of their basic right to get high-quality education, thus putting their future at the stake.

They argued that the raise in fees was in violation of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinances of 2003 and 2015, which permitted an increase not more than 5% of the previous one. But, the two schools’ management have hiked the fee by 10 to 12%, which is a violation of the law, as well as the notification issued by the education department wherein only 5% increase had been prescribed by the government, the parents alleged.

The petitioner recalled that the government had issued certain directives against the increase in tuition fees by private educational institutes but the management was not adhering to them.

The parents requested the court to restrain the school managements from taking any action against their children for the purpose of collecting the increased fees. The parents also demanded a monitoring body to scrutinise the increase in fees.

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After hearing initial arguments, the bench issued notices to the secretary and director of education and administrators of Foundation Public School and Head Start School to file their comments by the next date to be later notified by the court. In the meanwhile, the judges restrained the two schools’ management from charging the fee enhanced more than 5% till further orders.

Case history

The issue of exorbitant increases in tuition fee by private schools had surfaced last year when parents had highlighted the issue by staging protests in different cities, including Karachi. Some 400 parents and students of Generations School had challenged the up to 14% increase in fee by the school.

The SHC had decided the matter in October last year, ruling that the private schools, which were duly registered with the government education department, could not enhance the fee by more than 5% per annum. It had further ruled that those schools not registered will not be able to increase their fee by even 5%.