Fees increase: Private schools refuse to follow SHC ruling

KARACHI: Private schools have refused to abide by a Sindh High Court (SHC) ruling not to increase monthly tuition fees, sources within the education department informed Geo News on Thursday.

The SHC, earlier, ruled against private schools and barred them from increasing tuition fees by over five percent.

A three-judge larger bench comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ashraf Jehan announced their verdict which was earlier reserved in June.

The private schools’ management told the education department that it intended to challenge the SHC's decision in the Supreme Court within three months’ time as the expenses incurred by schools did not allow them to minimise the fees. A full bench of the SHC heard identical petitions against increases in tuition fees by private schools in violation of the Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001.

Petitioners Bushra Jabeen, Arshad Fawad, Muhammad Shariq Feroz and 600 other parents have challenged the increases in tuition fees by four private schools in violation of the ordinance.

They said their children were studying at the private schools situated in KDA Scheme, Gulistan-e-Jauhar and Qasimabad and the schools’ administrations had increased the tuition fees by 12 to 60 percent in violation of the law. The petitioners’ counsel contended that private schools could not be allowed to make a profit from their own choice as education was included in the basic necessities of life like food and healthcare, and the government had authority to stop the private schools from profiteering.