KARACHI: Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday restrained all private schools from raising fee.
While hearing a petition filed by the parents of children studying in private schools against the schools’ management for increasing fee more than five per cent in violation of the rules and regulations, the court’s division bench also directed Sindh government to form a mechanism for setting school fees.
The petitioners had submitted that as per rules, the school management cannot increase the fee by more than five per cent in an academic year; however, some private schools had increased the fee by more than 10 per cent.
They prayed to the court to direct the authorities concerned to restrain the school management from increasing fee and to follow the rules and regulations.
After completion of arguments from both sides, the SHC annulled the private schools’ notification that increased the fee and directed the provincial government to devise a mechanism for school. The bench also ordered the school managements not to collect extra or late fee from the guardians of the children who were not willing to pay exorbitant fee.
It is pertinent to mention here that in 2016, while hearing the identical petition, the SHC had directed the provincial education department to ensure enforcement of Sub-rule 7 m(3) of the Rules 2002 that bound the private institutions not to raise their fee more than 5per cent within an academic year and further requiring them to revise fee structure with prior approval of the government.