Private school owners here set up a council of trustees yesterday to handle the affairs of their schools. This follows executive orders to implement Federal Law No. 28 for 1999 governing school operations, ordered by the Ministry of Education and Youth.

The law comprises 100 articles and represents the biggest shake-up in the regulations governing private schools in recent years.

One of the changes will concern salaries. Private school teachers, the law says, must be paid a minimum of Dh2,000 or at least Dh1,500 if they work for an educational institute or centre.

At yesterday's meeting of school owners it was agreed that the executive order cannot be implemented, particularly in Ras Al Khaimah which has some "special circumstances". One is that schools here charge much lower tuition fees.

The owners made a strong appeal to the ministry to differentiate between private schools here and those in other emirates. They said the executive order was not fair and could lead to severe financial losses.

The executive order fails to take into consideration low tuition fees and appears to consider the matter only from the teachers' point of view, they said.

Raising tuition fees would help because without adequate financial resources the schools will not be able to cover all the salaries and other expenses. They urged the ministry to support private schools financially if it didn't intend imposing a minimum tuition fee.

One suggestion was that the ministry classify private schools in various categories. The owners threatened to shut down their schools if the ministry did not help.