An emergency meeting between the 30-member Dubai Private Schools Group (DPSG) and the emirate’s education authority to discuss a ban on Asian schools raising their academic fees has been postponed, Arabian Business has learned.
The meeting, initially scheduled to be held on Monday, followed the news last week that Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which oversees schools in the emirate, was freezing fee hikes in the 23 Asian schools operating in Dubai for the 2010-2011 academic year.
A letter signed by KHDA chief Mohammed Darwish and sent to all private schools also said education providers must “adapt to our changed circumstances.”
“Like everywhere, people are experiencing financially difficult times,” the letter said.
The comments were interpreted as a warning shot to education providers considering tuition fee increases in the 2010-2011 academic year.
The news is a blow for private sector schools, many of whom argue they have been running a budget deficit for some years.
Is it thought a number of schools have opted to join DPSG in the wake of the news, in a bid to strengthen their negotiating power.
A spokesperson for GEMS Education, the largest private schools provider in the UAE, said schools relied on annual fee increases to remain competitive and attract staff.
“Schools need increases year-on-year in order to increase teacher salaries and attract the best quality Asian teachers possible for our students,” he said, adding that GEMS would lobby against the fee freeze.
The provider, which owns or manages more than 50 schools in the UAE, last week introduced an early-bird discount scheme for fees. Parents with children at Indian curriculum schools can receive an up to 4.3 percent cut on tuition fees if they are able to pay early.
Parents of children in some GEMS international curriculum schools can receive an up to a 8.6 percent discount for early payment.
The concession scheme, now in its third term, is aimed at “[easing] the burden on parents,” the spokesperson said. “A number of factors were considered including current interest rates and what we thought would be attractive to parents.”
An estimated 35 percent of parents opted for early payment last year.
Commenting on the likelihood of a pay freeze for all private sector schools, the spokesperson said: “It seems like KHDA has already made the decision not to allow private schools to raise fees. However we are meeting with them to try and find a solution to this issue.”
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