Advance charges: Capital’s schools barred from charging summer fees

Parents claim schools are charging two months fees for doing nothing

ISLAMABAD: In a blow to private schools, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday barred private schools in the federal capital from charging tuition in advance for the summer vacations.

In a written order, IHC’s Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui directed the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) to restrain educational institutes from receiving advance fees for the upcoming summer vacations until the next hearing of the case in court.

The court further ordered that if parents have already filled out the challans for the summer months, these should be adjusted in fees for when school resumes in August.

The order came in response to a petition filed by a citizen Jamshed Khan against a private school chain in the capital.

Petitioner had challenged the collection of school fees for the summer vacations. Jamshed had argued in his petition that since the school is closed for over two months on account of summer vacations, therefore it should not charge any tuition fees and other expenses for that period from students.

On May 7, the court had directed the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) Secretary Furqan Bahadur Khan and PEIRA Chairman Hassanat Ahmed Qureshi and sought their comments on the issue.

On Friday, Furqan and Qureshi duly appeared before the court.

During the hearing, when Justice Siddiqui asked them how can the management of private schools collect fees for a period when the students are at home for the summer vacations at home, they responded that the Lahore High Court (LHC) in toto and the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had partially restrained private educational institutions from charging tuition fees during the summer vacations.

Subsequently, Justice Siddiqui IHC ordered that “PIERA is directed that all private educational institutions be restrained from receiving fees for the period of summer vacations till next date of hearing.”

After hearing arguments, the court passed the written order and adjourned the hearing until June 20 — when around a quarter of the summer vacations would have ended.

In June 2016, Peira had introduced a fee structure for private schools under the Registration and Fee Determination Rules 2016 (RFDR). However, the rules were challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

The regulator was stopped from enforcing any rules until the court gave its verdict in the case. In the interim period, it gave a free hand to private schools to charge fees as and how they wished.

The litigation continued for two years and the decision was finally announced at the end of January this year which struck down regulatory powers of Peira, rendering the private school’s regulator toothless.

In that period, the parents claim that schools had hiked fees by as much as 45 per cent.

They said the owners using, their financial resources and influence, have managed to convince key government officials and even parliamentarians and are creating hurdles in the implementation of government laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2018.