LAHORE: Only one out of 22 private schools has so far reduced its fee by 20 per cent in compliance with an order issued by the Supreme Court.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Dec 13 ordered private schools to cut their fees by 20pc and return 50pc of the amount they received during the [2018] summer vacation while hearing the case pertaining to increase in school fees.

The court had [earlier] ordered the institutes to furnish their respective audit reports and formed a committee in October to find an amicable solution to the issue of exorbitant fees being collected from parents.

The audit reports for Beaconhouse School System, The City School, Lahore Grammar School (LGS), Roots School System, Bayview Academy and 15 other schools, which were submitted to the court, mentioned that the directors and top officials of schools had received Rs62 million under salary head in 2017. A total of Rs512m was spent on employees’ salaries in one year, while Rs5.2 billion were spent in five years, the report said, adding that various facilities were also provided.

Parents Association President Sajeel Usmani told Dawn that only one out of 22 private schools [so far] reduced the fee and implemented the SC order.

He said 21 other institutes, including Beaconhouse, Roots, the City schools and Bayview Academy issued fee bills without any reduction.

Reports suggest some institutes are opting for retrenchment

“According to the court order, the schools are to implement it from December but they are saying to reduce fee in February and March,” he said.

Usmani said only the LGS administration reduced the fee but had yet to return 50pc of the amount received during summer vacation.

He said the School Education Department was to enforce the court order but it didn’t take any action.

Mr Usmani said: “We are receiving reports that administrations of private schools have started downsizing by reducing the number of teachers, administrative and security staff.

He said they had also decreased the number of classes by increasing strength of students from 30 per class to 45 and these measures would compromise the quality of education.

School Education Department (SED) Additional Secretary Mirza Ghulam Hussain said they had announced Dec 31 as last date for implementing the SC order.

He said there were more than 200 private schools in the city whose fees were in excess of Rs5,000. “We will constitute teams to conduct raids at private schools which are not implementing the court order.”

He said the department had decided to launch a complaint system [for parents] that would be functional from Jan 1, 2019.

“The private schools cannot close their any branch and retrench staff. The department will take action against schools which didn’t comply with the court order or terminated its employees,” he said.

Mr Hussain said the schools would have to return 50pc of the summer vacation fee or adjust it in next bills.

Beaconhouse School System spokesman Khurrum Ali said: “We had issued the fee bills before the court order and [we] will revise the amount after winter vacation.”

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2018