Private schools charging two months’ fees

Most private schools across the Rawalpindi district have issued two-month fee slips for summer vacations despite a ban imposed by the high court.

The high court has barred private schools from collecting two-month fee for summer vacations (June and July together). Parents have announced to file contempt petitions in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench.

Parents told The Express Tribune that vouchers have been issued to their children to deposit two months' fee together again this year despite the fact that the high court had barred private schools from charging two-month fee together.

The parents said that their children have also been invited to participate in summer camps from 7 am to 11 am during the summer holidays with a notice to submit two months' fee together and a separate fee for the summer camps.

Asghar Qureshi said that his four children were studying in a private school in Saddar. He said that the school administration has asked the four children to deposit two months' fee together which could not afford.

“ This is an injustice, but we are ready to deposit the fee for each month,” he said. Ajmal Satti said that no classes take place in summer and the fee should be waived off altogether or half the fee should be charged during vacations. “Instead, we are being forced to pay the two-month and full fee again,” he said demanding that the federal and Punjab governments should take immediate notice of the issue.

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Rawalpindi District Bar Association Secretary-General Malik Mubashir Rafaq said that the district bar would knock at the door of the court to take legal action against private schools collecting two-month fee at a time.

District Education Authority Chief Executive Officer Kashif Azam said that no school can collect two months' fee at a time. He said that parents should pay only one month's fee. He asked the parents to register complaints with the authority if any school administration violated the court order and forced them to pay the two-month fee and action will be taken against such schools.

All Pakistan Private Schools and Colleges’ Association President Irfan Muzaffar Kayani claimed that a two-month fee was being charged from only those parents who wish to deposit it on their own. “Parents who wish to deposit one-month fee, they can do so separately,” he said.

In 2018, the Supreme Court sought a forensic audit of private schools' accounts. The top court had remarked that private schools were charging the fee according to their whims and wishes, adding that education is not a product which can be put up for sale.

The court had made the observation after the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) presented an audit report on accounts of the 21 private schools. The report had said all schools increased the fee not because of inflation but to increase the profits of the owners who are the main beneficiary of such hikes.

The report had said almost all schools hid their profits using different techniques. It had said that owners prefer to withdraw their profits as remunerations which attract only 26 per cent tax as compared to 45 percent which would be required to be paid in case the same amounts were withdrawn as dividends.