PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority on Monday requested the chief manager of the State Bank of Pakistan, Peshawar, to freeze the bank accounts of 22 private educational institutions for not implementing the fresh fee structure devised by it in light of Peshawar Higher Court’s directions.

The prominent private schools located mostly in the provincial capital have denied the implementation of the fresh fee structure framed by the regulatory authority in light of the PHC verdict in a case, a senior official of the PSRA told Dawn.

The decision to request the State Bank of Pakistan to freeze the accounts of the leading private schools was made during a meeting chaired by PSRA managing director Syed Zaffar Ali Shah and attended by director (operation) Yasir Hasan, director (admin) Hidayatullah, deputy directors Noor Alam Wazir, Rizwanullah and Sohail Aziz, and assistant director Shehbaz Khattak.

The regulator requests SBP for action in this respect

The request was made through a letter, which says such schools have persistently been denying the implementation the PSRA Regulations, 2018, and judgment of the PHC issued on Nov 8, 2017.

“During the contempt hearing, the Peshawar Higher Court had directed to seal/freeze the bank accounts of the private schools, which are reluctant to act upon the directions of the court and KP-PSRA Regulations, 2018,” read the letter available with Dawn.

The regulator sought the SBP’s orders for scheduled banks to freeze bank accounts of the private school systems in KP, which are not implementation of the court’s orders, until further orders.

On April 10, 2018, the PSRA directed all private educational institutions not to charge more than half of the tuition fee from second/third children of the same parents (kinship), in line with the judgment of the Peshawar High Court.

It had also directed private schools not to charge the tuition fee during vacations.

It however said keeping in view of the expenditures like salaries, utility bills and rent etc, the management would be at liberty to charge a maximum of 50 per cent of tuition fee in addition to the annual charges being made.

In light of the PHC decision, the PSRA had also directed to increase annual fee only three per cent.

When contacted, PSRA MD Syed Zaffar Ali Shah said the authority had received hundreds of the complaints from parents against private schools over the non-implementation of fee structure devised by it.

“We approach each school for the implementation of the fee concession whenever parents submit complaints with us,” he said.

Mr Shah said when the schools gave concession in fees on the interference of the authority, they pressured the relevant parents not to share that relief with others.

He said the PSRA has also directed the private schools to withdraw the increase in tuition fee from November 2017 and that the bank accounts of the schools resisting its decision would be frozen.

The PSRA MD said the summer vacation would begin by the end of May and so the authority has accelerated efforts to stop the private schools from taking full fee.

According to the letter, the private schools, which are not implementing the PSRA fee structure and PHC’s decision, include Bloomfield Hall School Peshawar, Beaconhouse School System, the Racines School System, Forward Model School System, Roots Millennium School System, the City School System, the Smart School System, Peshawar Model School System, Qadim Luminaire school, Allied School System, ILM School System, Iqra Rauzatul Atfal School System, Warsak Model School, Quaid-i-Azam Public School System, St. Francis School, Frontier Children Academy, Pak-Turk International School and College, Sir Syed Public School and the Educator School System.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2018