KARACHI: After hue and cry from parents, Sindh Senior Minister for Information and Education Nisar Ahmed Khuhro has taken serious notice of the increase in tuition fee by the owners of some private schools and has also issued notices to them. In this matter, a meeting has also being convened by the minister with private schools’ management today (Thursday). The thwarting wave – caused after fee vouchers issued by most reputed schools of Karachi – made most parents uneasy, according to whom fee structure has been raised up more than 15 percent. The meeting would prepare a strategy on a mechanism for checking the increase in school fee and would also review the existing law that governs the registration of private schools. The senior minister also stated that the increase in school fee would not be allowed or tolerated. While talking to newsmen after a cultural programme at the JS Academy for deaf and dumb students, the senior minister said the owners of private schools had claimed that they raised the fee after rise in tax. “The owners of private schools would not be allowed to receive money from parents on the pretext of increase in tax by increasing school fee,” he added. The senior minister said that receiving money from parents in the form of increase in school fee to counter the rise in tax would not be tolerated and the government would not let them go unchecked. He said that a comprehensive strategy would be devised to ensure better monitoring of private schools. He also warned the owners of private schools against compelling the parents to deposit school fee for four months in lump sum. Meanwhile, the affected parents raising their voice against the ‘unjustified fee escalation’ in schools gathered at the Karachi Press Club to stage a protest. The parents came with placards, posters and banners highlighting the problem and school names that had raised the tuition fee. They chanted slogans like ‘Make future, not money’, ‘No fee till low fee’, ‘Stop thinking of parents as ATMs’ and others. Different private school management associations have kept distance from those ‘isolated schools’. Talking to Daily Times, Sharafuz Zaman, chairman of the Private School Management Association (PSMA) demanded strict action against those ‘hi-fi schools’ who according to him were only two percent of the total private schools in Karachi. “Under the existing Privately Managed Institution Act 2003, no school can enhance the school fee by up to five percent. That enhancement too is subjected to the prior approval of Directorate of Private School Institution Sindh,” Zaman added. But the managements of such schools are so strong that even ministers are unable to take action against them, he said. Another representative body of private schools, All Private Schools Management Association (APSMA), also denounced the schools that have raised the fee, calling it an unjustified act. APSMA Chairman Syed Khalid Shah said they would not provide any shelter to such schools.