Private education: Can schools raise fees whenever they wish?

Lahore High Court seeks replies from Competition Commission of Pakistan, Education Department regarding fee hikes


Our Correspondent October 10, 2014

LAHORE:


Justice Mehmood Ahmed Bhatti of Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday sought replies from the Competition Commission of Pakistan and the Education Department regarding a petition challenging fee hikes at private schools.


Shiraz Zaka, the petitioner, said school proprietors had been fleecing people. He said they increased fees every year without approval from relevant authorities. Zaka said this made it impossible for children from disadvantaged families to obtain quality education.

He said school owners had banded together to prevent the government from taking action against them. Zaka said they could not raise fees unilaterally under the Punjab Regulation Act 1998. He said this also violated the Competition Commission Act. He asked the court to issue guidelines to regulate fee increases.

Judge Bhatti sought replies from the department and the commission by October 17 after hearing the arguments.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2014.

COMMENTS (3)

Clarus | 9 years ago | Reply

Parents should band together and establish Not For Profit School. This can be started at Neighborhood scale.

Ali Baba | 9 years ago | Reply

Unfortunately, our system is very much corrupt, inefficient and ineffective. It is a dilemma and could not be resolved since long. The standard of our education in government schools/institutions is not hidden from any citizen of our beloved country, everyone wants that his/her son or daughter get quality education for future success. To fulfil this dream they (parents) are compelled by poor quality of education in government schools/institution to send their children to private schools and bear huge expenses. The private schools/institutions get benefit of this flaw and charge according to their will and wish. On the other hand our concerned education department don't take notice of these charges and let the private schools/institutions do as they want. Fees are doubled twice in a year in such private schools/institutions. I humbly request to the higher authorities to take notice of this and implement rules and regulations as defined in the law. Regards and Thanks.

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