PIERA bars private schools from taking summer fees

Says court directives barring schools from charging advance fees are still in effect

ISLAMABAD: The private school regulator in the federal capital on Monday asked schools to stop demanding summer vacation fees from parents, clarifying a written order division bench of the Islamabad High Court issued last week.

In a letter on Monday — the last day of school in the capital before summer vacations start — the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (Peira) directed private educational institutions to withdraw communication, if any, made to parents about depositing summer vacation fee in advance.

The regulator issued the letter to schools and parents in an attempt to clear any confusion over the court’s notices over an advanced collection of summer vacation fees.



Private schools had started sending threatening emails and text messages to parents, insisting that they must pay the advance summer vacation fee and failure to do so would see the annual results of their children withheld.

On May 18, a single bench of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) comprising Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had directed Peira to restrain educational institutes from receiving advanced fees for summer vacations until the next hearing of the court.

The court had further ordered that if parents had already paid the fees, it should be adjusted against the fees for the period after the vacations end.

Consequently, Peira also issued a public notice on national dailies informing the parents about the decision and not to pay any fee to the schools.

A private school association had subsequently filed an intra-court appeal in the IHC.

Initially court sources had confirmed to the media that the IHC had granted a stay against the May 18 order, however, the written order only mentioned the petitioner’s contention and directed to issue pre-admission notices.



“Notice for next week,” the order read.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, while hearing a number of appeals against various court decisions over the advance summer vacation fees issue in Lahore on May 31, had also refused to grant a stay against the IHC decision.

The CJP had observed that if schools are incurring losses, how will they able to construct buildings and campuses. He hinted at taking suo motu notice and hearing the matter in Islamabad saying parents are being exploited and forced to pay a fee higher than their salaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2018.