Payment of School Fees during lockdown

Q. Islamically, is it compulsory for parents to pay the full fees to schools during the Months of the lockdown in which schools could not teach their children?

A. The relationship between the parents/students and a school is a service (Ijaarah) based relationship.

Parents are obligated to pay a school the full amount of fees as agreed upon in lieu of all the services provided by the school. If a school did not provide all the services as agreed upon with the parents/students, the school cannot charge the parents/students the full amount of fees as the school did not provide all the services to the parents/students as agreed upon. The same applies to situation of the lockdown.

Charging parents/students the full amount of school fees for which a school did not provide all its services as agreed upon is incorrect.

To expect the school to waive the full amount of fees is also inconsiderate as a school has to maintain its structure to facilitate for the same parents/students in the coming Months.

Allah Ta’ala Knows Best

Mufti Ismaeel Bassa

themufti.com