KARACHI: Private schools cannot increase fee by more than five per cent without taking prior permission from the private schools directorate and if any school is found violating this rule, its registration will be cancelled.

The decision was announced by Senior Education Minister Nisar Ahmad Khuhro while addressing a press conference on Friday after presiding over a meeting with representatives of the Cambridge schools administration, private schools association and director-general of private schools directorate.

A five-member monitoring committee, headed by private schools director-general, would start visiting private schools to ensure that no school issues challans with over 10pc fee increase without taking permission from the directorate, the minister said.

Mr Khuhro said it was decided in the meeting that the schools which had issued fee vouchers with over 10pc fee increase in the months of August and September would adjust the additional fee in the monthly fee of October.

The minister said people could lodge complaints at the complaint cell established in the directorate of the private schools in case of violation of the rule by any school. The rule would be applicable to all the private schools and no one could be allowed to charge over five per cent increase without prior permission, he claimed.

In reply to a question, the minister said a parliamentary committee would be formed during the upcoming Sindh assembly session to review private schools’ registration laws. He said educationists and education department officials would be members of the committee so that their recommendations cover all aspects of the school education system. “The recommendations would be tabled in the assembly,” he added.

Referring to the local government elections, Mr Khuhro, who also holds the portfolio of information minister, said that after the announcement of the local government election schedule, a court decision directing the commission to make changes to some constituencies had created confusion. For this reason, the decision could be challenged, he added.

In reply to another question, the minister said military dictator Pervez Musharraf ought to tell people about his source of income and the way he had acquired properties.

The minister said the testimony of US journalist Mark Siegel in the murder case of Benazir Bhutto was quite important. “We have seen how brave dictator Pervez Musharraf is, as he is afraid of facing a court. He becomes ill whenever the court summons him,” he added.

Published in Dawn October 3rd, 2015

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