LAHORE: Future of hundreds of students of a private school chain hangs in the balance following intensification of a fee controversy between the management and parents.

The matter came to the light when the City School administration sent notices to the parents that their children would stand ‘withdrawn’ from the school after completing the current academic year 2017-18.

The letter, which spoke of unpaid dues by the parents, stated: “Please note that as a result of the withdrawal, your child will not be re-enrolled for the coming academic year 2018-19. Despite your default, we continued to provide your child with quality education for the remainder of the academic year since we did not want his/her education to be affected. We strongly value our students and their education.”

It said it would provide the parents with the result of the academic year 2017-18 but it would withhold the security amount deposited by the parents until the dues were paid in full. The school administration also threatened to take legal action against those not submitting fees. On the other hand the Parents Action Committee initiated a campaign against the school administration on social media and appealed to Chief Justice Saqib Nisar to take notice of the issue.

PAC General Secretary Sajeel Usmani said more than 1,200 parents had received notices from the school administration that their children stood ‘withdrawn’ after completing the 2017-18 session. He said the parents were not paying excessive fee because the administration had increased it unlawfully.

He said the Lahore High Court had directed all private schools that they could increase fee from one to eight per cent but the schools were increasing the fee up to 30pc.

Mr Usmani said the court had directed the schools to reimburse the excessive fee or adjust it in the upcoming fee. He said the schools were not implementing the court orders and parents had decided not to pay the fee until the schools followed the order.

City School GM (Operations) Ayyaz Rizvi said they had implemented the court orders and had expelled those students who did not pay fee for more than a year - 2017-18.

He said the students and their parents did not clear the dues despite reminders and the administration had allowed them to continue to attend class and take exams.

He said: “Why did they [parents] not file contempt plea if the administration had not implemented the court order?”

District Education Authority CEO Bashir Ahmed Goraya told Dawn the government had constituted five committees to investigate whether the schools were following court orders or not. He said there were 12 schools of the chain in the city and a committee would probe two to three schools of their respective areas.

“We have given direction to the schools to issue certificate about fee and will take action against those who failed to implement orders.” He said the same school had earlier been fined over charging excessive fees.

Mr Goraya said the parents agreed to pay in installments but would not pay the increased amount.

The committees were directed to submit their reports within a week.

Published in Dawn, June 10th, 2018