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Nine Dubai schools to scrap bus service

DUBAI — Nine schools under the Gems group in the emirate will stop running their own school buses and instead outsource the service from June 1. The announcement comes in the wake of the recent decision by education authorities in the emirate to turn down requests to increase tuition fee above the set fee cap of 16 per cent.

However, the circular has sparked concern among parents who now anticipate rising transportation fees, tuition fees and fear disruption of services. They say that this would mean the school is now free to hike transport costs. HC, a parent said, “This is definitely an arm-twisting tactic on the part of the school. Since their request for a 16 per cent fee hike has been turned down, they are resorting to smarter ways to increase costs.”

Another parent, NM, said, “If they had informed us earlier, we would have probably changed school as I do not want my child to travel with a new conductor and driver everyday. The safety of my children is of high priority and we cannot afford to risk it, especially in the light of the numerous molestation charges against bus conductors.”

Students from the group’s Dubai schools, including Our Own Indian School, Our Own English High School, Our Own High School, Al Warqa’a, Dubai Modern High School, The Kindergarten Starters, The Millennium School, The Westminster School, The Winchester School and Cambridge International School have received the circulars or are in the process of receiving them this week.

It states, “Fuel costs have alone risen by 300 per cent. Rising cost of buses together with over 50 per cent remuneration increase for our bus drivers and conductors have contributed to this astronomical rise in the cost of operating the school bus.”

Adding further, the Dubai Modern High circular elaborates, “In the absence of approval from regulatory authorities, we have been unable to increase transport fees. We wish to remind the parents that the transport service has been an optional service. We are no longer in a position to subsidise this service, regrettably, as of June 1. Modern High School will no longer operate a school provided transport service but will outsource this provision to an external provider.”

According to the school, its transportation costs are as low as Dh1,500 per annum in comparison to external providers ranging from Dh5,000 to Dh8,000 and cites that there has been no increase in transport charges since April 2006. Families, who have paid transportation costs for the full term will, however, be refunded in full.

Confirming the decision, Monica Harter, head of Corporate Communications at Gems, said, “We cannot continue to sustain the losses anymore and have been providing transportation to our students at subsidised costs. However, there will be no disruption of services.”

She added that since the service was being outsourced there will be a definite increase in transportation costs, though she did not state the figure since they were still on the lookout for a provider.

Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which supervises private and public schools in the emirate, maintained that schools which provide transport as an optional service have the choice of increasing costs to suit market rates, irrespective of the fee cap.

Mohammed Darwish, Chief of Licensing and Customer Relations, said, “In the case of optional services provided in addition to the basic tuition, and not imposed on the parents, the school or service provider is free to set costs in line with market forces. Logically, no school which provides a truly optional service need suddenly outsource this service as they may charge a fair, market rate for it if the parent has a choice.”

He added, “The Authority is not responsible for a school’s decision to outsource optional services nor for the regrettable and undesirable disruption that such a decision is likely to cause. Schools which do so may have other motives as fee regulation is not at issue.”

School heads, who didn’t want to be named, said that KHDA should have clarified the stand earlier as many would then prefer to run their own buses instead of outsourcing, if this was the case.

“It could mean that Gems could do a volte face and run its own buses, probably after an astronomical rise in transport costs, since they are under no obligation to include school bus cost in the fee ceiling,” said a parent.