UAE | Education
Authorities sign deal to develop rental index for education centres
Creation of long-term contracts expected to help stabilise rocketing tuition fees.
- Staff Report
- Published: 23:12 June 8, 2009
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
- According to official statistics, 72 per cent of the total number of private schools in Dubai have rental agreements. Picture for illustrative purposes only.
Dubai: A rental index for schools and other education centres in Dubai is to be developed, and it is expected to keep spiralling school tuition fees under check.
An agreement has been signed by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) to the effect.
The agreement aims to develop a unified index that will establish appropriate levels of rent for different areas with a view to achieving stability in the rental market for public, as well as private, educational buildings.
At present, rents for adjacent schools can vary significantly, which in the case of private schools has a knock-on effect on the level of tuition fees.
The new scheme, which will involve the development of long-term rental contracts, is intended to smooth out such disparities and inconsistencies.
The agreement covers universities and training institutions as well as schools. According to official statistics, 72 per cent of the total number of private schools in Dubai have rental agreements, which is 103 out of 144 schools.
"Developing a unified rental index is part of a comprehensive system," said Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the KHDA. "The scheme aims to define the prices of educational services among various education providers, attracting investment in education to Dubai and enhancing quality in all areas within schools, from the educational to the administrative levels."
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Rera is part of the Dubai Land Department, whose Director General, Sultan Bin Butti Bin Mejren, said, "This agreement with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority aims at enhancing the role of the Land Department in the registration of educational facilities including properties and rent contracts, through utilising an extremely transparent approach in defining the rent index for the rents of those facilities. This paves the way for all related parties to develop long-term rent contracts, which will eventually stabilise the educational sector and benefit all stakeholders."
The agreement is in line with Law No 26 of 2007, which requires all rental contracts to be registered with Rera.
The agreement calls for the sharing of the records of more than 500 educational facilities.
It also seeks to create an electronic system linking the entities to encourage cooperation for providing preliminary approvals for educational facilities.
Do you support the decision to implement a rental index for schools? Do you think this will ultimately have an effect on tuition fees? Tell us.
Your comments
Thanks to KHDA for the action to control rent for schools.
Pls. take care of the "Optional Transport" facility of the schools also. In UAE, howmany parents can transport their children to schools? Parents are forcibly obeying all the circulars from schools
Ameenah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 09, 2009, 17:10
Its way, way much cheaper to send my kids back to my country for studying than the high fees and bad level of education they receive in some schools here
Abdullah
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 09, 2009, 14:49
Even if rental index is fixed for schools I don't think that it would have any effect tution fees (i.e. tution fees would not reduce nor would it remain same). The management would have thousands of other reasons for increasing the fees.
Ms Jayarajan
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 09, 2009, 11:20
Surprisingly, KHDA showed all inability to take this step when it came to DMHS case wherein GEMS claimed excessive rents as reasons to hike fee by huge amounts.
Pradeep
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 09, 2009, 09:49
This is a great move for a long term service based rental agreement for schools. I personally send letters to KHDA regarding these issues due to the modern high school fee hike which is not acceptable in this period of global financial instability. 90% increase at a time is unbelievable. And the schools should obtain approval for the education facilities in the beginning and they can not increase fees on facility basis. It is a primary concern to obtain approval for a school from KHDA. Facility wise or location wise school fee increase to 90% is not viable that this is a primary need to run the school and it is a one time investment. A very clear cut rules and regulation for education is inevitable and I hope that KHDA and RTA will take initiative and save the children from greedy business men. Wish you all the best to KHDA and RTA with hope.
RAJ - 050-5784568
Raj
Dubai,UAE
Posted: June 09, 2009, 08:17
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