IHC sets aside plea challenging school fee reduction

The Islamabad High Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed against the 20% reduction in private schools' fees and referred the matter back to the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PIERA).

During these pressing times, private schools should reduce fees themselves. There won't be an issue if schools don't profit for two months, said IHC's Justice Amir Farooq, during the hearing of the case. 

The petitioner's lawyer said that the PIERA had issued a notification on April 8, directing private schools to slash the fee of April and May by 20%, without taking stakeholders into confidence.

PIERA's notification should be declared null and void, he argued.

The IHC judge said that if a review was made on the petition then schools will have to either reduce fee by 50% or 15%. 

"These are uncertain times [...] Did you approach the government before coming to the court," he asked.

Earlier in the week, parents in Islamabad complained against the callous approach of private school administrations demanding 2-3 months’ advance fee even in the lockdown situation, saying “PEIRA has become ineffective and now we are expecting intervention of the country’s chief executive.”

“Since the government is compensating every sector and section of the country during the pandemic period, parents are also no exception to this suffering ]. We are demanding waiver of March, April, and May fees and barring the schools to seek advance payment,” reads an appeal to Prime Minister Imran Khan circulated by a parents association on social media.

Punjab and Sindh governments have also directed private schools to reduce their fee by 20% in the wake of the pandemic and ordered them to pay the salaries of their employees as well.