Promulgated the other day, the Punjab Private Educational Institutions (Promotion and Regulation) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, has been challenged in the court by Adeeb Jawdani, the president of the All-Pakistan Private Schools’ Association (APPSA), on Monday.
The ordinance was introduced to regulate the private educational institutions after the parents of school children and civil society started agitation against the extraordinary hike in fees by private schools.
The ordinance bars the private institutions from charging extra fee during the academic year, 2015-2016, and says that every private institution will collect the same fee it was collecting in 2014 and 2015.
Jawdani said he challenged the ordinance after consulting his legal team and hoped the court would set aside the ordinance.
“I have learnt from reliable sources that this ordinance is a political gimmick of the incumbent government to gain public sympathy prior to the upcoming local bodies elections,” he maintained.
According to Jawdani, 97 per cent of private schools in Punjab charge fee from Rs 100 to Rs 1,500 and these schools are located in far-flung areas of the province where the state has failed to impart education.
Jawdani, who charges up to Rs 1,300 per month in his school, told this scribe that 30,000 private schools had been closed by their management in recent years because of the exorbitant taxes levied on private schools.
He was of the view that people willingly send their children to elite schools because of the status symbol, and said that now these parents were demanding a cut in fee.
Jawdani said there were 70,000 registered schools under the banner of APPSA, and these were sharing the burden of the state by imparting quality education.
He said that private schools did not receive any grant from the government, whether as intuitions like the Aitchison College received heavy grants, but still charged a fee that was out of the range of a common man and no one dared to demand a cut in fee there.
“We can take to the streets, but we have decided to take the legal course to get justice,” concluded Jawdani.
SCHOOLS PUT ON NOTICE:
District Officer (DO) Education Lahore Hasnaat Ahmad meanwhile said notices had been issued by the office of the District Coordination Officer (DCO) to 40 schools on complaints registered by parents.
Ahmad said the elite schools were making a hue and cry as no one had dared to tame them in the past.
DCO Lahore Capt (r) Usman told Pakistan Today that stern action would be taken against non-compliance and the government would defend its action in the court.