| Kippreport.com

Private education a big fat curse for UAE parents?

September 11, 2012 11:00 by M. Aldalou

Parents of private school goers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are quickly turning into raging balls of stress as they struggle to cope with what they describe as ‘soaring’ tuition fees. While giving private schools that have achieved a performance rating of ‘outstanding’ the green light to hike their fees by 4.5 to 6 percent may not be looked upon favourably, but at least it can be condoned or understood.

On the other hand, for a school that has received a ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ rating to also be eligible for a fee increase of even as low as 3 percent is certainly, not in any fashion, outstanding. As Kipp seeps through a letter written by a ‘Bemused Parent’ in Dubai, voicing his/her concerns over the flawed system that controls the educational institutes, we confess that we have also become slightly bemused.

“…And how can you allow the schools that are not ‘outstanding’ to raise their fees then? Shouldn’t you be returning money to parents because the school isn’t outstanding, rather than rewarding the school with permission to increase fees anyway?”

There are almost 150 private schools in Dubai alone and many of them (while watched and judged for performance) have been given the easy way out. Financially speaking that is.

Kipp certainly sees the logic in that statement (among countless others) and empathizes with parents as they struggle to keep up with the annual increase of their children’s private school fees. What’s more, while some parents agree that necessary learning should originate from the school itself, as many as 60 percent of parents are concerned that without private tuition, their children may not receive adequate training and so the educational receipts start to stack up.

In the capital, Kipp notices (with saddened eyes) how much bleaker the situation is, as parents are forced to resort to extreme measures to try and provide a relatively decent education via private institutions. Many Abu Dhabi parents told The National that some women are resorting to obtaining full time work, applying for bank loans to keep up with payments or simply resort to leaving their jobs and the city altogether. Concerned parents encapsulate the issue as salaries and education packages given by employers are not anywhere near meeting the standards of increased tuition fees every year.

In Abu Dhabi, over 30 private schools were given the go-ahead, while over 130 institutions were eligible in Dubai. Are you kidding me? The KHDA, initiated for the ‘protection’ and regulation of educational quality, student life and tuition control has stopped a mere 6 schools in the city from increasing their fees. The more ‘rejections’, for lack of a better word, that pop out of a regulation authority, the stronger and more committed that authority appears to the public. How do you measure the prestige of a top-class university like Harvard or Cambridge? You look at the percentage of students it rejects, right?

Six schools rejected and the rest deserved to increase their fees accordingly? Kipp can’t help but side with the aforementioned ‘bemused parent’ for referring to the educational institutes in Dubai and the rest of the country as “merciless profit-obsessed educational institutions.”

“Up to 80 per cent of a schools income is allocated to teachers’ salaries,” said a Taaleem (education provider) spokesperson.

Please.

Tags: abu dhabi scchool, Dubai schools, private schools, school fees, tuition hikes, UAE university tuition fees