Private schools: Govt asked to check fat fees

ISLAMABAD, The Cabinet Division has asked the government to monitor fee structures of the private educational institutions operating in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), an issue which was left to the market forces to decide.

The National Assembly was informed on Friday that the recommendation of the Cabinet Division had been placed before its Standing Committee on Education to empower the government to monitor fees being charged by the private education institutions in order to keep them within reasonable limits by fixing a ceiling.

In a written response to a question put by Tahira Auranzeb, Minister of State for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia said that a bill had already been moved to make changes in the Private Education Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA).

The authority was set up through a presidential ordinance in September 2006 as a self-financing body under the administrative control of the Ministry of Education.

The minister said private educational institutions in Islamabad were imparting education up to the Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSSC) or equivalent level. These are required to get registered with the regulatory authority.

There are some 652 registered private schools and colleges, with a strength of 140,000 students functioning within the ICT limits.

About the control over fee of private educational institutions, it was mentioned that the then federal cabinet while approving the establishment of the regulatory authority directed not to interfere in the determination of fee structure of Islamabads private education institutions. Therefore, initially, it was left to the market forces to decide the fees.

However, the institutions were asked to make sincere efforts to keep their fee structures within realistic limits and commensurate with the quality of education and services being provided by them. Later on, complains were received about exorbitant fees.

The Cabinet Division has advised amendments in the existing law of the regulatory authority to enable monitoring of the fees.

The NA Standing Committee on Education had already discussed the issue in its meetings held on February 8 and 18 this year. Its next meeting is being scheduled for sometime this month or the next one.

About second part of the question, Mr Kathia said as of now, there was no proposal to establish a national regulatory authority during current financial year to control fee structure of the private educational institutions.

It is worth mentioning here that in 2006 when the PEIRA was set up, representatives of the educational institutions managed to limit its mandate only to overseeing the registrations.

But this time, sources in the Cabinet Division said, the regulatory authority would be given enough powers to control the fees.