Parents unhappy with UAE school fees: Survey

Majority of the parents in the UAE feel that the fees charged by schools are too high, but they are forced to pay up, according to a survey conducted by Emirates 24|7.

Over 2,000 people who responded to the poll question, which asked if the school fees they are currently paying are justified in lieu of the level of education and the services offered by the institution.

A 64 per cent responded that they felt the fees charged were too high, but they had no choice but to stick to this school.

Said Mahek Mulani, mother of a 12-year-old studying in a GEMS school: “What choice do I have but to pay the fees? All the schools here are expensive, while the affordable ones have a waitlist of nearly 500 children per class.

“My only other solution is to send my son away to my parents in India or a boarding school there. And I know some parents are forced into doing just that with the rising cost of education here, but I don’t want my son to grow up without having his parents around him.”

 Another 19 per cent of the respondents said they were dissatisfied with fees charged by schools as they did not match the services provided by the institution; hence they were looking for a change in the new academic year.

“Two years ago, my daughter’s school hiked the fees by nearly five per cent; yet there was not a single change in the quality of service offered,” said Julia Mathews, mother of a six-year-old studying in a British curriculum school in Dubai. “The library is still in shambles, barring the addition a few new books; the quality of teachers still leaves a lot to be desired considering many of them haven’t worked in a multicultural environment found here; and students are still forced to pay for extracurricular activities that could easily be taught during school hours.”

Mathews explained that her daughter had swim class once a week, but the children were not being taught swimming but rather just used the hour to play in the water. She was then told by her daughter’s teacher that she should enrol her child in swim classes at the school as an extracurricular activity and pay extra for it. That’s when Mathews saw red.

“It’s preposterous. I have never heard of a school providing a swim period but not teaching the kids how to swim. And what’s worse, the children are told not to shower after the swim but to dry off and change directly into their uniforms. That’s unhygienic,” said the mother.

Mathews has since enrolled her daughter in private swim classes that are not associated with the school and plans to place her daughter in another school group in the next academic year.

Of the remaining parents who answered the survey, an 11 per cent said the fee hike was justified, but they did however believe that the school could do a much better job overall.

“Let’s be realistic; the cost of living in Dubai has risen dramatically over the last decade or so and schools themselves have overheads they need to cover,” said Jamie Towers, father to two teenage boys studying in a Taleem school. “Supplies, rent, bills, and teachers’ salaries are all part of the package that is covered by the fees. However, a line needs to be drawn between the profiteering schools that are simply out there to make the money and the pioneering schools that are in the business to make a difference.

“The decision being taken by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and the Dubai Executive Council (DEC) to freeze fees until a hike is justifiable is probably the right step forward. Barring a few schools, I doubt any institution has managed to increase fees in 2011-2012 academic year.”

Despite the DEC decision to freeze fees in the new school year, GEMS Education announced a fee increase across their Asian schools earlier this year. A spokesperson was quoted in the media earlier as saying that the approval was provided by the Ministry of Education last year for three years to help restructure five older schools.

The remaining six per cent of survey respondents said they thought the fee hike was justifiable and they were satisfied by the level and quality of education their child was receiving.

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