KARACHI, Jan 8: It is likely that this year parents would have to succumb to the private schools’ demand for an increase in tuition fee, as government has withdrawn itself from having any check on the fee rise.

Sources in the educational circle said that under its ongoing campaign to grant fresh registrations and renewals to private schools, the city government had been issuing certificates to institutions without seeking any justification or plan for fixation of tuition fee, which has always remained a major source of concern for parents.

The Sindh Private Educational Institutions (Regulation and Control) Ordinance 2001, which is the guiding tool for the district education department as well, does not address the fee increase issue. There is no provision to standardize the tuition fee system in educational institutions in the private sector.

It is believed that the ordinance has become a mean to espouse the notion of having an arbitrary increase in the fee by many educational institutions. Before the promulgation of the ordinance, the district education offices used to demand a justification for a fee raise and allowed any increase only after examining the available academic facilities and standard of education at the institution seeking fee hike, said sources.

Parents are of the view that the issue, which fell within the jurisdiction of the education department in the past, had always been a story of negligence by the educational department. There are examples that many schools, including those run on a non- profit basis, resorted to about 10 to 20 per cent increase in the existing fees each year.

The 2001 ordinance stated that the registering authorities shall not interfere in the fee structure of an institution. Such provision would surely enable an institution to continue with its own schedule of fees at the beginning of every year, as there was no mention of any committee or authority to have a check on the business of the private institutions.

The education department at present is busy in registering private educational institutions under the 2001 ordinance which requires school managements to apply for registration in case of pre-nursery to class XII or A-level to the EDO (education) of the area.

The annual registration or renewal fee is equivalent to the one month’s tuition fee charged by the applicant school at its higher tier class, while the registration would be valid for five years.

Initially, a deadline of Dec 20 was fixed for registration, which has now been extended to Jan 15. So far, 1,200 registration certificates have been issued to schools, including 200 new applicants and about 1,000 cases of renewal.

An official at the district education department told Dawn that the registering authority was least concerned about the fee schedule and was only visiting the schools applying for new registration. For those seeking renewal, there were no extra requirements and cases were being finalized on the basis of old certificates and information furnished by the school management.

Independent sources maintained that it transpired from the process that students could be charged any amount at the beginning of the academic year without any assessment of needs or reasons.

Government officials pointed out that as the 1975 ordinance pertaining to private schools management was also effective, parents could apply to the registering authority for redressal of their grievances. The district education department is still in a position to appoint board of governors in private schools violating the ordinance and causing inconvenience to community, they added.

Some of the terms and conditions required to be fulfilled by the school managements acquiring registration certificates are as follows:

“The management of every registered institution shall be responsible to provide proper teaching/learning facilities to all students, professionally-trained and qualified teachers for all compulsory and optional subjects.

“The charges/funds collected by an institution other than the fee shall be approved by the registering authority at the time of registration.

“The charges/funds structure so approved shall retain its proportional values with the fee structure charged by the institution in the current and preceding academic sessions.

“The institution will allow 10 per cent freeship to its students on a need-cum-merit basis. The institution shall not terminate the services of any staff or expel any student without prior approval of the registering authority.”

The education department sources said that a perusal of registration/fee papers received from schools at the office of the registering authority showed that a majority of them had already planned to increase the tuition fee. “An increase of 40 to 60 per cent on average has been predicted for the new academic session.”

The mushroom growth of schools and other educational institutions in the private sector can be attributed to the fact that private institutions are at the ease when it comes to charge their students. The ordinance of 2001 did not take into account the issues that had directly been affecting parents and students.

A senior office holder at a school management association said that the impression was not correct that increase in fees would be made by all private schools.