Schools warned against fine on vacation fee

Islamabad : The private schools of Islamabad Capital Territory have been warned by their regulator against collecting fine on the payment of summer vacation fee from students and said it will crack down on such educational institutions for violating the court's orders in this respect.

The warning comes as the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority receives complaints of ICT privately-owned schools making students pay the 2018 summer break fee along with fine.

In June, the PEIRA had stopped private schools from collecting the June 1-August 12 summer vacation tuition fee from students in line with an order of the Islamabad High Court but the Supreme Court later suspended the bar and sent the case back to the high court for re-examination. In this light, the regulator told schools by a public notice that the imposition of collection of fine on the summer vacation fee is unlawful. It said schools shouldn't impose any fine on the summer fee payment and if the need arose, they should issue revised fee vouchers to students. The PEIRA warned that it would act against the schools violating its orders in that respect under the law. The ICT has over 1,000 private schools, both elite and low-cost, regulated by the PEIRA.