A fee hike limit has been set at 2.07 per cent for around 90 per cent of private schools in the city…

HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has approved an updated School Fees Framework for private schools in Dubai.

The framework, submitted by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) will come into effect as of the next academic year 2019 and 2020 and aims to ‘strike a balance between parents’ needs and private schools’ requirements to improve the quality of education, according to an official statement.

According to the School Fees Framework, if the Dubai School Inspection Bureau deems that the quality of education at a private school is declining, the school will not be allowed to increase their fees.

Meanwhile, private profitable schools which maintain their ranking upon evaluation will be allowed to increase their fees by the same value of the education cost index.

So, how much will that be?

Based on the quality of education index in Dubai private schools over the past years, about 90 per cent of students are not likely to have their fees increased by more than the value of education cost index estimated at 2.07 per cent.

This means that only 10 per cent of students will have their school fees increased by more that 2.07 per cent.

Accordingly, private schools whose ranking will be improved from Very Good to Outstanding will be allowed to increase their fees by 1.5 times of the education cost index value.

Schools whose assessment moves from ‘Good’ to ‘Very Good’ will be allowed to increase their fees by 1.75 times meanwhile schools which move from very weak category to weak or from weak to acceptable will be allowed to increase their fees by two times the 2.07 per cent.

In 2018, the Dubai Statistics Center valued the education cost index at 2.07, accordingly, eligible private schools will be allowed to modify their school fees for the upcoming academic year according to the latest assessment of Dubai School Inspection Bureau, which will be announced later in the current academic year.

After taking into account the interests of parents, the KHDA has also proposed regulating any increase in fees for non-educational services such as school transportation, uniforms and school supplies with the concerned authorities.

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