Video: Are UAE's school fees unreasonably high?

Wed 20 Mar 2019 10:36 AM GST

Fee freezes, reductions, discounts, scholarships, flexible payment plans - schools in the UAE have been pulling out all the stops to attract parents and retain students, in what analysts are calling an oversupplied and fiercely competitive market for education providers.

It’s no secret that private school tuition in the UAE is amongst the highest in the world, with some of the country’s providers commanding as much as AED80,000 ($21,000) per child per year in kindergarten, and stretching to six figures for higher grades.

Parents have long been ranting about the burden of high school fees. Even prominent public figures, such as Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar, have lashed out at the country’s private schools over their extortionate fees that threaten to exclude less fortunate children from access to high quality education. A 2017 HSBC report said parents in the UAE spend, on average, a total of $99,378 on their child’s primary, secondary and tertiary education – more than twice the global average.

But industry experts are claiming the fee woes of families are now easing, as parents hold all the cards while schools struggle to fill seats and compete for students amidst increasingly tough macroeconomic conditions.

Arabian Business reporters Shruthi Nair and Bernd Debusmann discuss UAE's school fees on this edition of Inside AB.

(Source: Arabianbusiness.com YouTube channel)