Public education system collapsed due to collusion: Chief Justice

ISLAMABAD: The public education system has been deteriorated owing to collusion of people running it, the Chief Justice lamented on Monday while hearing the case of charging high tuition fees by private schools.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar headed the bench of the Supreme Court hearing the case of tuition fees hike by private schools.

As the hearing went underway, the Chief Justice asked for the fee structure of schools, and asked,”Do schools have the authority to raise tuition fees as per their wish? and if they don’t have it then who regulates the matter?”

“Should we go for the forensic audit of notable schools?” he added.

On which, the lawyer representing private schools responded that increase in tuition fees is approved by the registration authority.

Bench member Justice Aijaz-ul-Ahsan remarked the rationale behind increase in tuition fees should be provided to the court.

Displeased with the situation, the top judge lambasted “education institutions are not steel mills or textile mills; imparting education has been adopted as a business here.”

Last month, the Sindh High Court restrained private schools from increasing their tuition fee by more than five per cent.

A larger bench of the high court, comprising Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Ashraf Jehan, gave this verdict on a number of petitions filed by parents challenging an irrational and excessive increase in school fee.

The bench declared more than five per cent increase in tuition fee as illegal.