KARACHI, March 21: All the privately managed schools in the province have been debarred from collecting tuition fee or any other fee from students in advance, it was learnt on authority.

A senior official in the Sindh education department said that a decision to eliminate the advance fee collection system in private schools had been taken with the approval of the Education Minister Dr Hameeda Khuhro on Monday.

Moreover, the schools have been directed not to charge tuition fee and other fees for the months beyond April from the students of class X. Schools which have already collected fees of May, June and July are required to arrange for refund of the same at the earliest, added the official.

According to the decisions, the private schools would not charge any fee under any head as advance fee in future. They will simply charge the monthly fee for the current month up to 10th, without charging any late fee.

Additional Secretary Education Dr Mehboob Ali Shaikh told Dawn that the decisions had been taken after discussing the issues with the owners of private schools and the parents. The parents were further advised to inform the education department in case its instructions were violated by any private school.

Meanwhile a number of private schools have been denying their students of class X, admit cards for the board exams and demanding of them to deposit fees up to July, otherwise they would not issue the admit cards.