Bitter lesson for Dubai school over unpaid rent

Dubai: Hundreds of students have been left in a quandary after their school was served an eviction notice for failing to clear pending rent payments. The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has announced that it will do all it can to help the nearly 700 students affected by the school’s eviction.

The rent committee has served Al Farooq Pakistani School in Al Ghusais, Dubai, an eviction notice given its failure to pay rent for two consecutive years. The notice states that the school may be evicted with immediate effect but the KHDA has intervened so that the school will be allowed to complete the ongoing academic year at its current premises.

Mohammad Darwish, chief of the Regulations and Compliance Commission (RCC) at KHDA said the interests of students would be protected. “KHDA expected a more proactive approach from the school management. Since the required steps have not been taken, KHDA is stepping in to protect the interests of the students. KHDA is keen that the parents are not faced with a situation where they have nowhere to go in April.”

After a federal law banned schools from operating out of villas two years ago, the school moved from its villa premises to a building that had been housing a public school. The KHDA had assisted the school at the time.

The current crisis has been precipitated by the school’s failure to pay the rent ever since its occupation of the new building two years ago.

Given the situation, the school will not have premises to operate out of in April 2013 and also risks the withdrawal of its education permit once the eviction notice is enforced.

If the school fails to find a workable solution, parents will perforce have to transfer their children to the other two Pakistani schools or any other school of their choice. The KHDA has assured that it will expedite the paperwork needed to facilitate such transfers between schools.

“We encourage investment in Pakistani-curriculum schools in Dubai. The Pakistani community, like all others in Dubai, demands high quality education for its children. KHDA is keen to support serious school operators to serve this growing segment of the community,” Darwish said.

Al Farooq offers classes from the kindergarten level to Grade 10 but received unsatisfactory ratings in recent inspection reports.

KHDA has been working with other schools, including two Pakistani curriculum schools, to find seats for all the affected students and will facilitate their paperwork so that they may obtain smooth transfers to schools of their choice.

KHDA has held several meetings with the school’s management to discuss options available to the school, including the use of a land grant that the school has not yet utilised.

No officials from Al Farooq Pakistani School were available for comment when approached by Gulf News.

Noor Nazzal in an intern at Gulf News