Private schools play tricks to get summer vacation fee

• A school admin says parents have to pay fees at any cost

ISLAMABAD: Mocking instructions of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), a number of private schools have started playing tricks on parents via delaying results and other tactics to compel them for depositing the summer vacation fee.

Despite depositing the fee, the parents expressed their concerns over the school managements’ immoral act of delaying results in quick successions and said that their Eid festivities were being spoiled to keep them in a fix.

Raza Muhammad, a citizen whose three siblings are enrolled with a well-known school system, expressing resentment said that he has deposited fee just to have results as he has to move hometown in Sindh to celebrate Eid with family.

He said that the school postponed results for three times i.e 6, 8 and now 13th of June. “He is still not sure it will be announced even on given date, making us just impossible to leave the city,” he regretted. Jarar Haider, another citizen, shared a message of a school’s administration for the parents.

“Dear parents, due to an unforeseen technical error in our system, result compilation has been slightly delayed. The results will now be available on Wednesday (June 13,” he quoted the message from the school administration. He said that the schools were just waiting for a favourable decision from the court of law but their selfish approach was spoiling their Eid festivities.”

“I received a telephone call from head office of my daughter’s school a day before her result announcement with clear direction to submit cash amount equal to two-month fees with the G-13 school branch,” said Abbas Bukhari, a father of Montessori child.

“The lady on behalf of the school administration also made it clear not to visit the school for collecting result if I failed to submit cash with the school’s branch manager,” he said. When the attention towards court’s order for not paying fees against summer vacations was sought, she clearly replied their school policy would remain unchanged and parents have to pay school fees at any cost.

The branch manager admitted that almost 70 per cent parents have paid the fee while only 30 per cent were waiting for court’s decision on the issue. He declined to comment on not issuing results, saying this is the policy of the top management. Mubarak Hussain whose two siblings are enrolled in a private school said in a smart move earlier the private schools circulated fake news in a section of press that the high court has announced its verdict in their favour.

“The court’s divisional bench had just even discussed the maintainability of their plea which is still to be decided and they make it a case to bag money from more parents. He also asked for investigation of the fake news circulated with mala fide intention, disgracing the court. Sibt e Hassan, a high court lawyer whose daughter is getting an education from one of the same school, said, “I am afraid that the institutions meant to teach morality and make our generations law abiding citizens do not themselves own any moral obligation.”

He regretted if such schools with claims of following international standards were unable to follow laws of the land then what would be the situation in ordinary street schools? When contacted an official from the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA), he said that clear instructions have been given to the private educational institutions to withdraw any communication with the parents compelling them to submit summer vacation fees.

However, an official of the Islamabad Capital Administration confirmed that PIERA had written a letter to their department for taking strict action against 45 schools for violating the IHC’s verdict on controversial fee case which was pending for adjudication. “A meeting between the chief commissioner and the private school owners is likely to take place in the next week,” he added.