Heavy on the pocket: ‘Private schools told not to collect advance fees’

Final arguments on petition sought on June 19

LAHORE: Justice Ali Akbar Qureshi of Lahore High Court has scheduled final arguments on June 19 on a petition seeking action against the administration of private schools charging advance fees for summer vacation.

On Wednesday, the court was told, on behalf of the education secretary, that a directive had been sent to administration of all private schools not to collect advance fees for three months.

The education EDO said so far, the registration of three schools which had failed to comply with the directive had been cancelled. He also said that notices had been issued to 230 schools for not following the directive.



The judge said that had the government had passed a law on the issue and that schools could not be allowed to do as they pleased.

Advocate Sheeba Qaisar had moved the petition saying that the provincial government had issued a notification and stopped private schools from collecting fee of summer vacations but instead of following the directives, several schools were forcing students to pay the entire fees for the vacation at the same time. She said this had caused a lot of problems for students’ parents.

Earlier an official of the Education Department had said that the department had not received any complaints from parents or students in this regard.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2015.