PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Private Schools Regulatory Authority on Tuesday directed all privately-owned educational institutions to refund half of the fee received from students in the last summer vacation.

It also asked the schools charging over Rs5,000 a month to reduce fee by 20 per cent.

The directives come in light of the Supreme Court’s interim order issued on Dec 13, 2018.

20pc fee reduction ordered for those charging over Rs5,000 a month

According to a circular issued here, the regulator directives will be applicable on the private schools functioning in KP, including in tribal districts.

“All private schools shall reduce fee by 20 per cent of the amount in excess of Rs5,000 which essentially means that notwithstanding the total amount of fee, the first Rs5,000 is exempt from reduction of 20 per cent, and such reduction would be applicable to amounts in excess of Rs5,000 per month,” read the circular.

It added that further increase in the fee (after the afore-mentioned reduction) should strictly be in the range of five and eight per cent.

The circular said the schools might increase fees by five per cent for the next academic year, whereas for any increase of school fees between the range of six and eight per cent, the schools were required to seek the permission of the regulator, which would determine the same accordingly.

The authority directed all schools, which had received full fee during the last summer vacation, to either adjust the same in next fee or refund half of it within two months.

Prior to the summer vacation, the Peshawar High Court had ordered private schools of the province to charge half of the fee during summer vacation.

Many schools later took half of the fee from students in the summer vacation. However, parents were asked to pay the concession fee when the Supreme Court set aside the high court’s decision.

The authority warned private schools that until the apex court issued further orders, they shouldn’t reduce the salary or strength of teachers, who were employed at the time when the court’s interim order was issued.

It asked students and parents to pay fee at the time fixed by the school and said any student, who didn’t pay the reduced fee, would be liable to disciplinary action allowed by the relevant rules and regulations of the schools.

The regulator said all awards, scholarships and other incentives already given to students would remain intact and would neither be reduced nor withdrawn as well and that no school would under any circumstances be closed nor would the students be expelled.

It added that the sibling fee concession of not less than 20 per cent to the second and other children of the same parents enrolled in same schools would remain intact in line with sub-section 4 of Section 4 of the amended KP PSRA Regulation, 2018.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019