SHC extends stay order against more than 5pc increase in school fee

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday extended its stay order until Oct 8, restraining the city’s private schools from increasing school fee more than five per cent till further orders, ARY News reported.

A division bench of SHC directed the counsel for private schools to come prepared to forward their arguments in the case on next hearing on Oct 8.

The court has given the restraining order on petitions filed by parents against some private schools for increasing their fee more than five per cent in defiance of the relevant government rules.

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 tuition fee.

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.