Dubai: The recently announced fee framework links the fee changes with quality rating of the schools.
The schools rated “outstanding” are allowed 6 per cent increase, while schools ranked “good” allowed 4.5 per cent, and those listed as “acceptable” and “unsatisfactory” allowed 3 per cent.
However, in exceptional cases, some schools are allowed higher than 6 per cent fee hike.
Schools falling under this bracket are the not-for-profit schools, schools managed by embassy and special needs schools as well as those investing in infrastructure expansion. If allowed an increase under exceptional conditions the school will not be entitled for another fee increase for next three years.
Kings Dubai and The Indian High school Dubai this year announced 9 per cent fee hike. While the former cited major expansion as the reason, the latter falls under the non profit category. Both schools were rated outstanding this year.
“Ours was an exceptional case, we had not raised our school fees for the past four years and we are also rated outstanding by KHDA. We have been approved to hike the fees by 9 per cent, however we still remain one of the most economical schools in the country,” said Ashok Kumar, the Chief Executive Officer of The Indian High School Dubai.
He added that the average fee at the school was Dhs330 per month and following the hike it will be Dhs360 per month.
The new fees will be applicable retrospectively from April 2012, with parents allowed to pay the differences in two instalments.
The framework calculates school fees as Educational Cost Index (ECI), which will be set by Dubai Statistics Centres, multiplied by 2 for ‘outstanding’ schools, for ‘good’ schools ECI is multiplied by 1.5 and for ‘acceptable’ and ‘unsatisfactory’ schools ECI is multiplied by 1.
