Private schools fees

Parents who have enrolled their children in private schools of Punjab and Sindh can now breathe a sigh of relief as the Supreme Court has struck down all excessive increases in fees being charged by private schools since the year 2017. In its verdict issued on Friday, a three-member bench of the top court noted that the fees collected by private schools since the mentioned year would be recalculated by private school regulators in Punjab and Sindh provinces, and only the fees approved by them would be treated as chargeable. All excess fees charged would be adjusted, according to the top court verdict.

The court was, however, not oblivious to the arguments made by the schools’ representatives that their cost of doing business witnesses annual growth under various heads while there is also a requirement for private businesses to remain profitable to ensure that they keep providing quality education — the primary reason why many parents opt to send their children to private schools instead of those run by the government.

The court insisted that the schools had failed to empirically prove that the revenue caps were unreasonable. It may very well be that many of the schools — especially the ones that target the elite — do not have any such reasonable justifications for the fees they charge or the increase in the fees sought. The court further noted that the provincial government had failed to adequately impose the regulations as well.

Private education in Pakistan, even at the middle levels, is quite expensive. If a parent has more than one child admitted to private institutions, the burden of fees can grow immensely. To add to this, many schools also charge auxiliary fees for several expenses which are never included in the fee slips. All this adds greatly to the burden of the urban-dwelling middle-income segment of the country which is more often reliant on stagnant salaries as its main source of income.

It is hoped that through these measures, private school owners will realise that perhaps they are working for a cause much bigger than just money.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2019.

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