Dubai schools group seeks to further fee hike

While parents might complain about increasing school fees of their children, the Dubai Private Schools Group (DPSG) claimed they are impacted by a growing funding gap.

A gap, if not filled, they argued could impact affordable schools and limit the number of classroom places available.

The members of DPSG approached the Dubai Chamber and requested for a rethink on how education costs are regulated.

“In appeals first to the Ministry of Education, and later to Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), we highlighted a potential and growing issue should things not change. All Dubai schools face this issue, even many that have served the community for decades,” said a DPSG spokesperson.

Even though they applauded KHDA’s efforts to regulate the funds through a school fee framework and annual inspections, the members revealed that there’s still a lot more that can be done.

“This framework has failed to take into account the three most significant costs facing schools in Dubai: teacher salaries, rents for the land and school buildings, and capital investment in technology and innovation,” the spokesperson added.

In fact, they highlighted how the new school fees structure defines a maximum rate of return on school investments, discouraging many investors from building new schools.

The members informed that the imbalance caused by the rising costs not tallying with the fee increase could mean less investment in schools, and ultimately fewer school places to serve Dubai’s growing population.

“It is crucial that people who take risks investing their money and giving their personal guarantees to banks be able to make a reasonable return that will allow them to repay loans and costs, and encourage them to invest in building new schools.”

KHDA’s recently published Dubai Private Education Landscape shows that 42 per cent of the student population pay less than Dh10,000 in annual tuition fee.

Dubai has 158 private schools and in a year the stats revealed that they generated around Dh4.7billion in total.

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