The court after hearing the arguments issued a notice to the concerned authority and sought a response.
PESHAWAR:
A writ petition has been filed in Peshawar High Court (PHC) to stop private schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) from collecting summer vacations fee in advance and various types of fees from the students, including promotion fees.
A two-member PHC bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Khurshid Iqbal took up the writ petition for hearing filed by Abbas Khan Sangeen advocate. He made the chief minister, chief secretary, Education secretary and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Private School Regulatory Authority (PSRA) as respondents in the petition.
The petitioner argued that the collection of admission, examination, promotion and other capitation fees have been declared illegal under the PHC verdict in 2021 and subsequent notifications issued by the PSRA.
Furthermore, the schools are bound to give 20 percent concession to one of the two siblings enrolled in a same school, however, educational institutions across the province are not implementing the rules despite orders and repeated notifications from PSRA.
The petitioner submitted that various educational institutions are fleecing the parents of school going children, requesting the court to ensure implementation on the PHC orders and PSRA Regulations 2018.
He also requested the court to issue order for refund of amount charged in an account of capitation fees, adding that schools be barred from charging fee in advance as some schools are demanding an advance fee ahead of summer vacations.
The court after hearing the arguments issued a notice to the concerned authority and sought a response.
News published in the Express Tribune on 7th May 2025
