Parents complain school moved from Clifton

SHC dismisses petition against school shifting to PECHS.

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed a petition against the shifting of a private school.

Zahid Sharif along with 25 other residents of Clifton went to the court against the management of a private school accusing it of shifting the institute from the posh Clifton locality to the PECHS “illegally”. The principal of the Star Links School, the provincial education secretary and the director of private schools were cited as the respondents.

The petitioners’ 47 children have been studying from the General Knowledge group to the 10th grade at the private school, set up on two plots in Clifton Block-I.

In the past one year, the school management have increased the tuition fees by 100 per cent, the plaintiffs alleged. Then on July 18, 2012, the administration informed the parents through a text message that the school was being shifted to Block 6 of the PECHS. The school management kept the whole relocation process a secret until it recovered the summer vacation fees and also made new admissions in mid-session, the petitioners believed. Shifting the school during the ongoing academic session would affect the studies of around 600 student enrolled at the school.



The aggrieved parents went to the Sindh education secretary to take notice of the illegalities and take action against the school administration under Section 4(3) of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance, 2011.

The applicants appealed to the court to order the regulatory authority concerned to take action against the private institute’s management and stop the relocation until the case was decided.

The education secretary and the private schools director, filing their comments, submitted that all formalities to shift the school were completed by its management. The relocation took place after the session ended and even the admission fee for new students was refunded through cheques, which have been placed on record, they said.

The petitioners’ lawyer was not able to convince the court as to how the shifting of school was not allowed under the laws, the division bench, headed by Chief Justice Mushir Alam, observed. “We do not see any merit in this petition, which is accordingly dismissed,” Alam pronounced.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2013.