The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday directed all private schools to implement the fee structure issued by the provincial government.
It is worth mentioning that the fee structure fixed by the Sindh government forbade private schools from increasing their tuition fee by more than five percent annually. On Thursday, a larger bench of the SHC presided over by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi was hearing the contempt of court plea parents moved over alleged non-implementation of court orders regarding the fee hike.
During the hearing, the SHC bench also asked for a copy of the Supreme Court (SC) order that directed private school authorities to decrease their tuition fees by 20 percent. Earlier on September 3 the SHC had restrained the private schools from increasing their tuition fees by more than five percent. The court had also ordered the management of these schools to reimburse the excess fee in three months.
The SHC had further ruled that its order would apply to all students, and private academic institutions as well as schools governed under the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2001 and Sindh Private Educational Institutions Rules 2005. The high court ordered private schools to restore the fee structure in place on September 20, 2017, and reimburse any fees they may have charged from parents in excess of it.
During Thursday’s hearing, a lawyer representing Generation School submitted a revised fee challan and stated that his client had started the implementation of the court’s order. “Furthermore, the tuition fee for all classes is being revised,” he told the bench. The lawyer expressed a lack of knowledge when the bench inquired about other charges aside from tuition fees. He requested the court for more time to submit a response. The lawyers for Beacon House School and the City School also submitted revised fees challans. They added that the data for all the campuses of the schools were included.
The parents of the different schools informed the bench that the private schools had been charging from Rs27000 to Rs34000 as tuition fees for each class. Meanwhile, City School’s lawyer denied the claim and said that these were only rumors. The petitioners submitted that the private schools had failed to submit the proper documents the court had asked for and were misleading them.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar asked about the implementation on the court’s order regarding the fees structure. The private schools’ counsels replied that proper documents were submitted before the court.
The bench remarked that the private schools did not appear to be complying with the court’s order. Justice Abbasi directed that those private institutions which avoid the court’s orders must be closed. The bench also directed that students not be barred from sitting in exams for not being able to pay tuition and examination fees. Moreover, the court forbade school management from harassing or intimidating students in any manner and instructed parents to pay tuition fees according to the revised fee structure. The hearing was then adjourned till January 14.
Published in Daily Times, December 21st2018.