SHC bars private schools from charging over 5pc increase in fee

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday restrained the city’s private schools from increasing their fee more than five per cent till further orders, ARY News reported.

This restraining order came on a petition filed by parents against some private schools for increasing their fee more than five per cent in defiance of the relevant government rules.

The court issued notices to the provincial education department, respondent private schools and others to file their respective replies until the next hearing.

The petitioners submitted that Sindh government had declared more than five per cent hike in school fees within an academic year as illegal. Some private schools however, had increased fee by 10 to 12 per cent, petition said.

They pleaded with the court to stop private schools from irrationally and arbitrarily increasing school fees.

It merits mention here that the SHC had last year dismissed the petitions of some private schools for increasing their fee more than five per cent.

The court had directed the education department to enforce the restricted increase in fee.

It ruled that the provincial education department was obliged to enforce Sub-rule 7 m(3) of the Rules 2002 that bound the private institutions not to raise their fee more than 5pc within an academic year and further requiring them to revise fee structure with prior approval of the government.

The court observed that private schools business methods is based on the open market principle of – you get, what you pay for – which is a shameful admission in respect of the noble profession of imparting education.