Private schools fleece students in absence of fee structure

PESHAWAR, The monthly fees of private schools have been increased manifold during the last few years as there is no law to regulate the fee structure of these institutions, officials say.

In different cases the administration of the private schools also charge high annual promotion fees along with other charges including examination, sports, medical, etc putting extra burden on the parents of students.

The government has established regulatory authorities under the chairmanship of the respective boards of intermediate and secondary educations across the province to streamline, supervise and regulate the functioning of the private educational institutions.

However, these regulatory authorities proved toothless in the absence of any legal powers with them to check the fees structure.

“The administration of these schools after every few months raises the fee without any justification,” said father of a student, studying in a known private school.

He added that a student had to pay additional fee for appearing in the internal school examination.

An official of the regulatory authority told Dawn that on November 14, 2005, the then governor had ordered formation of a committee with secretary school and literacy as its chairman, two chairmen of different BISEs as its members and representatives from private sector to devise fees structure for private schools.

But, despite the lapse of almost five years, the committee for fees structure couldn’t be established due to less interest of the quarter concerned, he said.

Peshawar BISE Chairman Prof Farhad Jan, who is also chairman of the regulatory authority, when contacted, told Dawn that private schools had crossed all limits in fleecing parents on the pretext of different fees.

“We have no criteria of fees structure and owners of the private schools are collecting very high monthly fees from students on their own,” he said.

The administration of private schools moved the court whenever the regulatory authority took action against them but it couldn’t defend its action in the court as there was no proper fees structure in the law, he said.

He said that the regulatory authority suggested to the government to declare status of private schools by dividing them into different categories as well as prepare fees structure for them.

He said that a tripartite meeting of the members of BISEs, private schools and provincial government should be convened to devise policy regarding fees structure. He said that BISEs should be empowered to cancel registration of private schools for violation of rules.

Around 1,820 private schools are affiliated with Peshawar BISE including 530 primary, 700 middle and 590 high schools. All these schools are located in Peshawar, Charsadda, Chitral, Khyber and Mohmand Agency and Frontier Regions of Peshawar.

“The Elementary and Secondary Education department has proposed amendment in the law to ensure a proper fees and salaries structure in private schools,” an official told Dawn.

He said that the department was also working on two different plans to bring improvement in the performance of the regulatory authorities.