HC asks Sir John Wilson School to stop charging additional fee

The High Court today directed the principal of Sir John Wilson School located in Satarkul area of Dhaka to refrain from charging additional fees from students for the current year.

The court also issued a rule asking the authorities concerned to explain in four weeks as to why they should not be directed to bring Sir John Wilson School under Private English Medium Registration Rules, 2007.

The HC bench of Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice AKM Shahidul Huq came up with the order and rule following a writ petition filed by guardians of 33 students of the school challenging the legality of charging additional fees.

Education secretary, primary and mass education secretary, director general of directorate of secondary and higher secondary education, director general of directorate of mass education, principal of Sir John Wilson School and chairman of its trustee board have been made respondents to the rule.

The Sir John Wilson School cannot charge additional tuition, admission and session and other fees from its students for this year following the HC order, petitioners’ counsel Aneek R Haque told The Daily Star.

Citing from the petition, he said Sir John Wilson School has been running without any managing committee for the last 21 years.

The managing committee is the authority to fix the fees of such school, he said, adding that the school collects the fees from the students through its trustee board which is against the Private English Medium Registration Rules, 2007.

The lawyer also said the school had collected Tk 1.60 lakh as admission fee from a student and this year it has arbitrarily fixed Tk 1.92 lakh as admission fee.