Focus: Should a cap on school fees exist?

16:42 Gulf News: School fee cap is the only way to stop the commercialisation of education.

16:44 Anju Chhatwani: I strongly agree as schools have become commercial. With the news of teachers being underpaid, we are forced to wonder - where does all the money go? The hike in fees cannot be seen in facilities by the schools. There is no increment in salaries either.

17:01 Deepali Tulpule: There are no public schools for expatriates in the UAE; hence, everyone is forced to attend private schools. They charge outrageous amounts and increase fees each year, and that is not justified for expatriates who want good education for their children but at times cannot afford it. It will at least help avoid the misuse of funds gathered by the schools.

17:03 Salim Mohammad: To make you understand, we can say that the education sector is like the healthcare sector. No matter how much profit you make from it, the ultimate goal of the sector is to serve people in terms of developing society as knowledge is power.

17:03 Anju Chhatwani: Salem, I agree that it is a form of service, however, the service nowadays has taken on the form of business.

17:04 Gulf News: High fees do not guarantee a good education.

17:07 Anju Chhatwani: Very true, as fees is not and have never been the criteria for good education. Looking back, we will find that many children who studied in schools with nominal fees have done wonders.

17:08 Deepali Tulpule: High fees do not necessarily mean good education. I think a lot depends on the tutor and his or her skill of imparting knowledge rather than the fees that the school charges.

17:08 Salim Mohammad: Fix the amount of tuition fees based on the infrastructure that the school provides and not based on the quality of education. But, recently the Ministry of Education has come forward with a brilliant solution to this, saying that no teacher would be allowed to work in schools unless they are qualified to teach the particular subject. This step has forced most schools to hunt for qualified faculty rather than going for part-time and underpaid employees.

17:09 Gulf News: A cap limits the school’s ability to invest in infrastructure necessary for growth

17:12 Deepali Tulpule: Budgets should be allocated for the infrastructure requirements of the school and divided into percentage increase per year. The parents should be made aware when they enroll the child that the school is likely to increase their fees by a certain per cent each year at least for the next three years. Infrastructure is required, however, the whole load of the same should not be passed on to the parents in terms of fees in one go.

17:14 Salim Mohammad: To further invest towards the development of schools, a solution would be to come up with a subsidiary in the form of financial help. If one wants to study in a high class school, they have to pay more. So, in one way you can say that this cap is an advantage because it forces the schools to improve its quality in education service and hence bring the grades up. This is appreciated by the KHDA, which allows them to increase the fees cap later.

17:18 Anju Chhatwani: Increasing fees every year is not a problem. The problem arises when the common man cannot cope up with the same. To deal with this, the school authorities should opt for some government aid and loan. KHDA is doing a good job by grading the schools, but there should be a limit in increase of fees, for example the increase should be once in three years or once in five years.

17:18 Gulf News: Parents willing to pay more for better facilities should be allowed to do so.

17:19 Salim Mohammad: No. Not all the time can it be done within the caps, there are certain limits to it. There are really small things, which can be covered from the fees of the school. If you can calculate the salaries of all the teachers, it would cost much more than what they receive as fee profit.

17:20 Anju Chhatwani: Yes, those who can pay should donate as charity and not force the schools to raise the fees.

17:20 Deepali Tulpule: This would not be fair as the faculties and infrastructure is meant for all and each parent should share the cost equally.

17:21 Anju Chhatwani: Salim, I agree that not everything can be done within limits.

17:22 Salim Mohammad: I disagree as education should be for all and not only for those who have bigger wallets. A child, who was raised by a single parent and is having financial circumstances, should also be able to have quality education at a moderate fee. Otherwise, we might deliberately classifying our society into so called high-class and low-class, and gradually people will start classifying schools into low and high classes.

17:27 Anju Chhatwani: A cap should exist to provide quality education to all children, irrespective of whichever income class they belong to.

17:32 Deepali Tulpule: High fees do not assure good quality of education. I strongly feel that there should be more value given to the tutor than the infrastructure and more effort should be spent on getting a good teacher. Spending vast amounts on infrastructure, increasing fees and not having good teachers would add no value to the school. Good teachers may be expensive to hire and hard to find.

17:38 Anju Chhatwani: The display element should go away from the schools and the simplicity of education as a noble service should be maintained. The authorities should start funding schools that are actually providing quality education. This will be a great help for the educators as well as the learner.

17:41 Deepali Tulpule: Increasing fees in a controlled manner would only mean that more expatriates would like to come and stay in the UAE. As what I have understood it from recent news is that some expatriatess had to withdraw their children from schools due to high fees and send them to boarding schools in the UK.

— Compiled by Donia Jenabzadeh/She is a trainee with Gulf News