The fees are secondary for this school
Dubai: Ashok Kumar, CEO of the Indian High School, believes the KHDA ratings prove quality education is not about huge cash flow.
The institution, nearly half-a-century old, is a success story despite the low fee, Kumar affirms, because it is not profit-oriented.
"Dedicated staff, involvement of parents and our honorary advisers and not-for-profit board are our strength. Our teachers do not ask for overtime and our advisers do not ask for consultancy charges. These are some of the things that keep our fee one of the lowest in Dubai," said Kumar.
He maintains that his school can comfortably boast of having better infrastructure than many expensive schools around.
"The profits we make are ploughed back into the school. We are able to run the school successfully and upgrade its facilities over time without over-burdening the parents because the vision of the school is to offer quality education in an affordable price," Kumar noted.
However, he is certain that the school will go for the permissible fee increase next year as they need funds to improve and upgrade. "We do not receive grants or subsidies, and have to generate the revenue from the fee we levy," he added.
‘Education is about choice’
GEMS, the UAE’s largest private school operator that owns Dubai Modern High School, has expressed reservations about the evaluation reports published by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).
Of the six GEMS schools inspected, three have been graded ‘Good’ while the rest received an ‘Acceptable’ grading.
Richard Forbes, director, Marketing and Communications said the fact that Our Own English High School and The Millennium school have also received ‘Good’ rating, shows GEMS offers quality education in all its schools irrespective of the fee structure.
“Education is about choice and no matter what the Inspection rating is, parents will choose the school that they feel best suits their child’s needs. GEMS does not agree entirely with the results but the inspection system is new and we expect KHDA to iron out inconsistencies over time.
“Given this is the first round of inspections and a new phenomenon in Indian schools we are sure that this is as much a learning process for the inspectors as it is for our schools,” he said.
“In comparative terms GEMS Education believes that Dubai Modern High School is an outstanding school and one of the best Indian day schools in the world.”
Forbes added that some schools did not achieve an outstanding rating as it was deemed they were not sufficiently compliant in Arabic and Islamic studies.
Have your say
Are you happy with the results of the KHDA report? Will the rating process help improve education standards in Indian and Pakistani schools? Tell us.
