Private schools to challenge IHC bar on summer vacation fee

Islamabad : Islamabad’s privately-owned schools have announced that they will appeal the Islamabad High Court’s interim order for them against charging students fee during the summer vacation.

The high court recently restrained private educational institutions from collecting fee during the two-month summer break and adjust the fee if it's already collected.

The interim bar came on the petition of a citizen, Jamshed Khan, who contended that since the private schools remained closed for more than two months, they shouldn’t charge tuition fee and other expenses from students for that period.

Dr Afzal Babur, president of the Private School Network, which represents Islamabad’s low-cost private schools, told a news conference at the National Press Club that the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) didn’t plead the position of the private schools on fee in the court and even it wrongly interpreted the other courts’ decisions in that respect.

He said the intra-court would be filed with the high court against summer vacation fee for relief before the vacation began.

He said the private schools also planned to move the Supreme Court for relief.

Zofran Elahi, president of the Private Schools Association Islamabad (Urban), said the Islamabad High Court’s decision on summer break fee would adversely impact on the affairs of private educational institutions and therefore, the association demanded its immediate review.

He said the private schools had to bear the administrative expenses, including rent, utility bills, and teachers’ salary during the summer vacation and therefore, the high court bar on summer break fee would be challenged in the court for a decision in light of the ground realities.

Elahi accused the PEIRA of giving the court wrong information on fee and insisted that the Lahore, Peshawar and Sindh high courts didn’t order private schools in their respective regions not to collect fee in summer break from students at all.