Sharjah: The Sharjah Educational Zone has approved a tuition fee hike of up to five per cent in the new academic year, Gulf News has learnt.
Hessa Al Khaja, head of Private and Quality Education at Sharjah Educational Zone, said that 60 private schools have been given approval to increase their tuition fees in the 2014-2015 academic year.
She pointed out the Ministry of Education issued a circular setting out the criteria for tuition fee increase. Forty-seven schools which follow government and foreign curricula and 13 community schools requested a hike, she said.
The Educational Zone had earlier warned schools against increasing their fees without obtaining approval from the ministry and other educational bodies. She stressed that schools that increase their tuition fees without obtaining official approval from relevant bodies would be fined, “There is no tolerance towards schools found violating rules,” she said,
There are 94 private schools in Sharjah, so the fee hike affects 64 per cent of the schools.
Of the schools that have been granted fee hikes, 13 follow Indian and Pakistani curricula and 47 British and American or those of the Ministry of Education.
Hessa said the Educational Zone approved the tuition fee increase following requests submitted by the schools after a committee was set up by the Special Education Department to examine the requests.
The committee had assessed the schools which requested the hike, she said. It visited the schools and assessed them on the ministry’s criteria, that include the status of the school building as per specifications and the administrative, educational and technical cadres, to make sure the schools are eligible, and then the Zone has the right to approve the increase, she said.
(Nawal Al Ramahi is a trainee at Gulf News)
