Daily Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday barred private educational institutions from charging fees during the summer break.

While hearing an appeal filed by various private schools against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s policy bounding the educational institutions to charge 50 percent fee during the summer vacations, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar observed that a poor man’s child cannot afford to study in a private institution due to the massive fees, adding that its government’s inefficiency that it could not prioritise the education sector.”It’s state’s responsibility to ensure free education for the children until 16 years of age,” the chief justice stated.

The chief justice also hinted at ‘nationalisation’ of all private schools across the country.”Why should we not direct the government to take over all schools as there is no bar on nationalisation,” he said.”Currently more students are enrolled in private institutions than in the government schools,” he lamented.

The four-judge bench headed by chief justice had sent public notices to parents through two newspapers for hearing of the matter. The chief justice lamented that two previous governments did not give preference to the education sector. “We have already formed a commission for the enforcement of Article 25A of the constitution,” he said.

Earlier, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) had rejected a petition filed by the private schools. On Thursday, the apex court also refused to give them an interim relief. The hearing of the case was adjourned for one week.

Published in Daily Times, June 29^th 2018.