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29 March 2024

Brit school allowed 'exceptional fee hike', KHDA explains as parents object

The hike was allowed to help school improve: KHDA (File)

Published
By Sneha May Francis

The parent community of a school are complaining of fee hikes above the permitted KHDA cut-off, just days after Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) announced the school inspection report ranking 145 private schools for the new academic year 2016-17.

One parent, requesting anonymity, said his child’s school marked a 27 per cent increase. This, when KHDA has allowed a maximum of 6.42 per cent on tuition fee, for schools ranked 'Outstanding'.

This British school in Qusais only got a 'good' ranking, and is permitted 4.8 per cent increase.

According to the KHDA rulebook, the fee mark-up is based on the Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB) ranking and the Education Cost Index, which is set at 3.21 per cent this year.

“This is a huge jump and we are not prepared for this,” said the parent.

Another parent added, "This doesn't even add in the miscellaneous fees.

"Even our salaries don't go up by this percentage."

When Emirates24|7 raised it with the KHDA, they explained that the school was allowed “exceptional fee hike”.

Mohammed Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Compliance Commission at Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) explained, "The exceptional fee increase framework (as approved by The Executive Council of Dubai and now part of the main fee framework) seeks to regulate fee restructuring for all private schools operating in the Emirate."

"With the dual aim of increasing the quality of education in the Emirate and ensuring a fair return on investment, the exceptional fee framework was revised, introducing an eligibility criteria and a structured evaluation process to assess the eligibility of schools for exceptional fee increases.

“The criteria has been inserted to ensure that investors are able to achieve a fair rate of return and the market continues to sustain investor interest and in turn offer improved and sustainable educational services to students and parents."

Of 145 private schools inspected in Dubai, “DSIB ranked 16 schools are ‘outstanding’, 13 schools are ‘very good’, 57 schools are ‘good’, 56 schools are ‘acceptable’ and 7 schools are ‘weak’. “This year, no schools are in the ‘very weak’ category,” said Fatma Belrehif, Executive Director - DSIB.

How the fee hike calculated

Based on the ranking, schools can now increase the fees for the academic year 2016-17.

In February, the KHDA had announced that all private schools in Dubai can increase their fees based on their individual school grade and the Education Cost Index (ECI), which is set at 3.21 per cent.

According to the KHDA fee framework, schools rated 'outstanding' will be allowed to increase fees by 6.42 per cent, which is double the ECI.

'Very good' schools will be eligible for 5.61 per cent, which is 1.75 times the ECI; and, 'Good' schools will be allowed 4.81 per cent, which is 1.5 times the ECI.

The 'acceptable', 'weak' and 'very weak' will be allowed to increase by 3.21 per cent.