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Education dilemma

ABU DHABI — Education in the UAE is like a choice between the cake or the cream. Either forego quality for affordability or buy quality at a price that hurts, according to many parents and educationists.

Given a choice between affordable or quality education, thousands of parents are quick to opt for the former for failing to find a midway.

When upscale schooling that comes with all the conceivable amenities and luxuries like high-tech computer labs, sprawling swimming pools, fully-fitted gymnasiums, indoor and outdoor sporting facilities remain the privilege of a few in the country, the rest of the student community gets a raw academic deal within the claustrophobic atmosphere of schools housed in villas.

There are hundreds of private schools in the country operating from villas and makeshift caravans with dingy classrooms and labs with little ventilation, cafeterias spilling out smoke and smell and not even a namesake play ground. Yet parents make a beeline to get their children admitted in the villa schools.

A cross section of parents whom Khaleej Times spoke to echoed the same sentiment as Balachandar, an Indian Sales Manager who said, “Of course we do care about quality in everything we offer our children, but the standards we set have to be within our reach. When we have to bend over backwards to meet the rising living expenses in the UAE, which is worsened by the skyrocketing housing rents, it is mission impossible to spend more on children’s education.”

Susy Manroe, a Filipino housewife said she decided to put her two kids in a villa school looking at the quality of the teaching staff. “I am of the view that academic standards should be measured by the quality of teaching offered in any institution. What is the use of state-of-the art facilities if the academic staff are not well qualified?” argued Susy.

Toeing the same line, Yasser Ahmed from Egypt remarked that he and his brothers did well though their father could not afford to send them to expensive schools. “We had dedicated teachers who respected their profession, something our kids lack,” he said.

But Ajith Babu who works for Siemens, Dubai has a counter argument which many endorsed.

“You cannot deny the fact that proper education needs an organised structure that includes not just quality teaching but proper facilities that will encourage group behaviour. After all students will imbibe the social culture and discipline he learn in the school, and if that is substandard, he will feel inferior at some point of time.” “In a villa, what a student gets is just a home tution environment,” Ajith insisted.

When the question was thrown at some of the school principals and experienced teachers, they said that schools are offering the best of facilities they can afford in the current situation.

“Not all of us can afford to purchase land and build a proper school building. Some who are looking at that possibility after the education ministry’s instruction to shift the premises from villas, are considering to open schools in the outskirts of the city. But what parents and students need is a descent educational facility within the city limits where they have easy access” said Margaret Almeida of Noah’s Arch Nursery.

Agreeing that schools in villas cannot provide enough area for their student’s outdoor activities, Margaret noted that schools do try to make up for the shortcomings by arranging picnic an outdoor visits to parks, shopping malls etc. regularly.

Meanwhile, there is also strong protest against the recent move by many schools to hike their fees by over 50 per cent without actually improving their standards. Parents have called upon the authorities to take steps to increase the quality of private education by offering them facilities in subsidised rates.

“Nationals are offered free education. With millions of expatriate families living here, the country’s leadership should consider providing lands and other subsidised facilities like electricity, water etc. to the private school managements,” opined some educationists who requested anonymity.