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28 March 2024

20% spend a third of salary on schooling

Published
By Staff

Education imposes a strain on expat family finances, according to a survey released by WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, the UAE’s first dedicated school guide.

The survey states that 62 per cent of respondents cover the entire cost of their children’s school fees in the UAE. A further 24 per cent receive a contribution from their company while just 13 per cent have their school fees paid in full.

The survey was conducted online over a period of five weeks through March and April with 596 responses from parents around the UAE. Forty five per cent of respondents live in Abu Dhabi, 43 per cent in Dubai, 8 percent in Sharjah and the remainder spread through the other four emirates.

When asked whether the school fees paid represent ‘good value for the quality of school offering’, a key factor noted was whether parents themselves pay fees. Fifty four per cent of those who have fees paid think those fees represent ‘good value’ while this falls to just 27 per cent of those who pay in full themselves.

“The survey provides a snapshot of the major issues and concerns facing expat parents today,” said James Mullan, co-founder of WhichSchoolAdvisor.com. “There’s a lot of material for parents, employers and schools to digest and discuss. Any family considering moving to the UAE should also find plenty of information which will help guide them in their decision.”

Almost one in five families spend more than 30 pe rcent of their household income on school fees. This varies considerably, however, depending on particular school curricula. Those families spending 10 per cent or less of their income on fees is 42 per cent for Indian curriculum schools, 28 per cent of International Baccalaureate (IB schools), 25 per cent of British curriculum schools and 19 per cent of American curriculum schools.

The good news for schools is that more than six in ten parents surveyed would recommend the school their children attend to other parents. Once again, though, there is a substantial differential in curricula with 70 per cent of parents attending IB and/or British schools recommending their schools while just 49 per cent of parents at Indian schools would do so.

The single most important criterion when choosing a school is ‘Qualifications of Teachers’ followed by ‘Choice of Curricula’. The third most popular choice is ‘Results in External Examinations’.

Not such good news for educators is the finding that 53 percent of parents have at some time thought about changing their child’s school. There is a very high correlation between academic performance and consideration of alternatives. Where parents are satisfied with academic performance very few parents think about changing schools (22 per cent). Where parents are unsatisfied with academic performance they have almost universally thought about other schools (91 per cent).