Private schools defy SC orders, charge summer vacation fee

PESHAWAR: Most of the private educational institutions have been blatantly defying the Supreme Court orders and notification of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private School Regulatory Authority (KP-PSRA) by making the parents pay the fee for the summer vacation.

The defiance has forced the parents to ask the apex court and the regulatory body to take notice of the situation and provide them relief through implementation of their directives.

The KP-PSRA has strictly barred all the private schools from charging summer/winter vacation fee from students.

Through a circular issued on May 30, 2019, the regulatory body directed “All the private school (s) not to charge summer/winter vacation fees.”

However, the majority of the private schools have not been complying with the directives and have issued fee vouchers to the students for June, July and August.

Several schools have also warned the parents of fines in case of non-submission of the fees within the stipulated time.

The KP-PSRA is of the opinion that they had taken the step in light of the Supreme Court directives and an increasing number of complaints from parents.

Now the parents are knocking the doors of media houses to reach the government and the regulatory body and urge them to implement their directives.

There is confusion among the parents as the regulatory body wants them to cooperate with it by not depositing the fee. But they are afraid that they would have to pay a heavy fine in case of non-submission of the fee as they are not sure that the PSRA would implement its directives.

There may be an exception of just a few schools that have redesigned their fee structure in such a manner that they have covered the summer vacation period.

KP-PSRA has already started taking action against the schools for charging summer vacation fees and harassing parents.

The authority sealed a number of schools on the complaints of parents.

It was reported that some schools were harassing parents to force them to deposit the vacation fee and they had even withheld the results of the students.

Bloomfield Hall School, University Town Peshawar and a few other schools have already been sealed for charging summer vacation fee and allegedly harassing students and their parents.

The authority has also asked parents not to deposit the summer vacation fee and instead lodge a complaint against the schools demanding it. In a recent telephonic conversation with this scribe, Managing Director KP-PSRA Asad Haroon urged parents to cooperate with the regulatory authority by not submitting the fee and lodging complaints against the schools forcing them for summer vacation fee.

“If any school forces them to pay the fee, they should lodge a complaint with the authority and strict action would be taken against the school concerned,” he had stressed.