Private schools face action over summer break fee

Islamabad : private schools operating in the Islamabad Capital Territory are facing action by their regulator for charging students the fee during the summer vacation despite the court's orders.

The Islamabad High Court recently restrained private educational institutions from collecting fee during the two-month summer break and asked them to 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. Now, the people have formally complained about the violation of that court order prompting the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) to ask around 20 defiant schools to comply with the order.

In formal communication, the PEIRA told schools that it would initiate legal action against them for collecting monthly tuition fee and other charges from students under the relevant law and would also communicate their names to the high court.

When contacted, PEIRA chairman Hasnat Ahmad Qureshi confirmed the development and said the authority was ensuring by all means the strict compliance with the court's order by private schools and would act against its violators. Totalling over 1,100, Islamabad’s privately-owned schools have already announced that they will appeal the court’s bar on summer vacation fee.