Sindh govt suspends registration of City School, Beacon House over failure to comply with SHC orders
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The Sindh's Directorate of Inspection / Registration of Private Institutions on Thursday suspended the registration of all campuses of The City School and Beacon House School System following their alleged failure to comply with the Supreme Court and the Sindh High Court's (SHC) orders, barring them to increase their tuition fees by more than five per cent.
On September 3, the SHC had declared as illegal the more than five per cent increase in the tuition fees by private schools and institutions, and ordered their management to refund the excess amount within three months.
The SHC had ruled that its order would apply to all students and private institutions and schools governed under the Sindh Private Educational Institutions Ordinance, 2001, and Sindh Private Educational Institutions Rules, 2005.
The directorate's director general (DG), Dr Mansoob Hussain Siddiqui told Dawn that both The City School and Beacon House School System were reminded multiple times to comply with the court orders.
Siddiqui further said that the two schools were neither complying nor responding to the committee's notices, due to which their registrations have been "suspended till further orders".
The DG said that the decision to suspend the two schools' registration can be reviewed, provided that they comply with the courts' orders.
He also said that The Smart Schools, a subsidiary of The City School, has also been issued notices in this regard.
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Comments (30) Closed
Nov 14, 2018 08:12pm
How can the private schools perform as before when they cannot maintain quality staff now only available on the market rates of emoluments?
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Nov 14, 2018 08:15pm
Instead of licence suspension, the school should be heavily fined for non-compliance. It will hit the pocket of the owners instead of creating troubles for the students and their parents.
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Nov 14, 2018 08:54pm
Okay that is good that their registration has been suspended but where is the punishment? How can a shcool has the audacity to disregard the Supreme Court orders? Who is the culprit? Where are the fines for disobeying the country's highest courts? If this was done in the West some heads would have roled (people fired) starting from the top and millions of dollars fines would have been imposed. The reason, a crystal clear message would have been sent to all plus future generations that do no mess with the law.
Again, unless people and institutions are punished for breaking the law, no one will be afraid of the law nor respect the law. Please note that it is the severe punishments that deter the criminal mind. This concept of muk mukao has to stop and law must be applied/enforced no matter how painful it seem. Pak should learn by now that where there is absence of law criminals and corrupt rule. People must learn to follow the law.
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Nov 14, 2018 08:55pm
More trouble for the students. Seems like everything is ungovernable in Pakistan
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Nov 14, 2018 09:27pm
@N_Saq so true, where is the punishment? The owners should be fined heavily and charged with contempt of court only then they will listen. I don't believe that they do not have enough income/profits that without hefty increases in tuition they cannot afford to hire quality faculty.
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Nov 14, 2018 09:33pm
Why don't kids from all backgrounds go to school together in your country? Who cares who is rich, middle class or poor. Education should be equal for all. This is what happens when its rich vs poor. And who suffers in the end the children.
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Nov 14, 2018 09:52pm
Used to go to one of these schools. The one I went to, the teachers had an after school tuition centre where most of the class students (who could afford to) used to attend. Personally I felt that the teachers were holding back in school with the extra effort they would apply in the tuition centre. Then again we don't really have properly trained teachers in most of our schools.
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Nov 14, 2018 10:18pm
@Dr. Farooq Siddiqui, I agree. That is a better solution. Also, I would request the Federal and other provincial governments to also take stern steps against such private schools. They are simply fleecing parents.
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Nov 14, 2018 10:18pm
Anyone has an idea of the ratio of private schools v/s govt schools? I dont have but it would be something like 1:10 respectively. The fee charges by the govt schools is much less then private schools. Then why people send their children in private schools? Is it a difficult question to answer? I think no - it is because of the quality of education which is because of good teachers who are available only of one pay them good. Please let me know if i am wrong.
Rather than penalizing private schools, the SC should focus on govt schools to improve its delivery of education within the same cost. Believe me, no one will send their childern to private schools and thay will have to bring the cost of tuition fee down. The homorable SC will not have to spend its time on this exercise.
In my opinion, the only solution to bring teaching cost down is to improve quality of education at govt schools. Otherwise, it will do nothing but to sabotage the education in Pakistan...
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Nov 14, 2018 10:52pm
In a free economy with double digit inflation and Rs to USD increasing over 30%, how can one regulate the private schools to only raise 5% tution? Why not first regulate oil, utilities, food, and other basics that will drive the school's salaries and expenses higher? Obviously these private schools will either increase class size or reduce the quality level to survive. Answer to the issue is to improve government schools quality and bring more competition so private schools can't charge high premium .
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Nov 14, 2018 11:35pm
Thank you to those parents who raised their voices and thanks to honorary Chief Justice. The money making school industry should have some shame.
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Nov 15, 2018 12:05am
What if the schools decide not to move forward and decide to close down all their operations, lay off all the teachers and staff; what then is the SC's or the Govt. of Sindh's solution with uneducated youth and unemployed teachers? Do they have a backup contingency plan?
How many public schools are actually operating and don't have ghost employees? Can those schools accommodate all the school children who would be affected by this closure?
Seems the Govt. of Sindh has failed to plan, yet again.
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Nov 15, 2018 12:18am
Finally some good news from Sindh government PPP. Same thing should happen in entire Pakistan to all private schools
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Nov 15, 2018 12:27am
Wonder how much tax beacon house pays?
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Nov 15, 2018 12:52am
Running private schools is a business like any other business. Agreed with some comments that if other institutions or businesses are not regulated for the price hikes, then why just schools ?
The better way to access any justification for the hike in fees, is to look at the end of year balance sheet or the subsiquent taxes filed. Besides, there are other quality private schools as well,though they may not be popular due to their size or several different branches spread across.
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Nov 15, 2018 01:26am
Very well done CJP
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Nov 15, 2018 01:37am
@Shoaib , Especially in Sindh!
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Nov 15, 2018 01:38am
Excellent! I studied in this school and they charged full fees when even when we didn't have teachers to teach us Physics, Chemistry, and Biology and this too was in A-Levels. These schools mint a lot of money, they don't even have a doctor/nurse or a counsellor on campus.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:06am
@Dr. Farooq Siddiqui, Education is not cheap.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:08am
@N_Saq, They are good schools; it is not supreme courts business to interfere in schools business.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:09am
@Khan Sahib Virginia, With due respect, you should know how much private school costs in Virginia.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:10am
@Fazal, You are right.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:15am
@N_Saq, Please do not compare with West. Do you know how much is the tuition in US, Canadian or UK Private schools, or Universities.
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Nov 15, 2018 06:47am
Wishing well to all the Children of Pakistan. Our children are our future.
Thajendra from India.
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Nov 15, 2018 07:09am
Well, don't you think that parents are so naive despite of knowing the high fees charged by private school, they admit their children in these schools.why? They could either have admitted their children in government school or those school who charges are very low. It's the difference between eating in dhaba and five star hotel. Why you send your children to Oxford or Harvard and pay exuberant fees, why not tell those institute to lessen it. It's the quality of education and the value/demand in the market. In this case closer will only affect students only.
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Nov 15, 2018 09:06am
Not only this school disobey order, other schools also. What happed June July vacation fees order of supreme court?
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Nov 15, 2018 01:27pm
They will close down the schools and g to other countries.
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Nov 15, 2018 11:38pm
I believe it is a wrong decision. The responsibility of education is for the state. Since it is unable to provide it. This does not justify a cap on school fees. People themselves are at fault for not sending their children to Government schools. And or to schools that have low fees. Problem is either go for free markets and allow the concept of Elite schools as is practiced in countries like Japan even.
Or the state should provide this utility as is its responsibility. If buyers and sellers agree on the fee then I don't see a point to fee cap.
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Nov 16, 2018 12:51pm
@Dr. Farooq Siddiqui, good suggestion. The court should impose heavy fines instead of suspending the license. In reality, the temporary suspension of license doesn;t have any impact on the school's daily operations which continue as normal. But if a heavy fine is imposed, based on the total number of students, then the management will fall in line within one day.
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Nov 17, 2018 09:47pm
@jaredlee007, and you did what about it? Absolutely nothing.
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