Dubai special needs school in cash-crunch; increases fees by 40%

School fees remain one of the most daunting issues that most parents in Dubai endure year after year. The latest school to increase their fee by a whopping 40 per cent is the Al Noor Centre For Children with Special Needs.

The decision has impacted the parent community, with some even forced to pull out their children because they are unable to pay up the Dh10,000 increase.

Parents earlier paid Dh25,000 annually, but they will now have to cough up Dh35,000.

Isphana Al Khatib, director of Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs, confirmed that their Centre is “currently facing a budget deficit”.

Explaining the decision to revise the annual fees, he added, “The fees until last year were set at 50 per cent of actual cost of training incurred per child annually. Therefore, the subsidy provided to each child had to be decreased due to financial constraints and thus fees were revised.

“Based on this year’s budget, even with the revised fees, Al Noor will still continue to offer close to 45 per cent subsidy to each child, based on the cost of training incurred by the Centre.”

According to him, the management is looking at various ways to combat the situation.

“We are looking to add new initiatives to our already existing fund raising calendar. Board and committee members are continuing to tap their circles and contacts for support. We are also looking to get parents to initiate and support fund raising activities.”

When asked why the Centre had not taken any action in the four years since the problem started, Isphana said, “Intensive efforts have been on-going in an endeavour to avoid passing on extra cost to parents, till we reached a stage wherein the fee subsidy had to be revised.

Parents had to become aware and hopefully help with the challenges faced by the Centre.”

Some parents claimed that if the money issue is not solved, the school, which offers education to 281 students, will even be forced to shut down.

John Jenkins, a member of the parent group, claimed that “the fee is already high, so increasing it will only further burden the parents”.

While some parents, like John, have their company sponsoring their children’s education, many aren’t that fortunate. Benjamin Zephaniah is one such parent who had to pull out his child.

“Our salary package does not include the school fees. We struggle day in and day out not only financially but emotionally and physically as well.

“We have been left with no choice but to remove our son as we cannot afford it. This affects our poor boy and it will have a big impact on our family,” he told Emirates 24|7.

John informed that when the parent group met with the school authorities to discuss about the fee hike, they were told about the financial crisis that the school was in.

“When we first learnt about the new fee structure, we were horrified and we got together and met with the school management. They told us about the crisis and how an increase in fees was essential,” he added.

“Any continued budget deficit would of course result in final drastic measures. It is to avoid this that the board and management have taken many steps, one of which is the reduction of the fee subsidy. Beyond this, intensive fund-raising activities will continue,” added Isphana.

“The Al Noor Centre is licensed under the Ministry of Social Affairs which does not allocate funds to Centers such as ours.”

Parents, however, are united in their stand that they should not be burdened with higher fees.

“Many families are faced with severe problems, many of whom are on low incomes,” highlighted a parent through e-mail.

“Our intention is not to reflect negatively on the management of the school, but to raise awareness of this situation and highlight the fact that the Centre needs an injection of cash to continue providing essential services to special needs children in Dubai.”

The parent group, in fact, has stepped in to help and is in the process of organising a fund-raiser for the school.

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