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School hikes fees despite MoE order

ABU DHABI — Parents of students of a private school in Mussafah have petitioned the Ministry of Education (MoE) urging it to stop the “exorbitant” hike in the tuition fee and transportation charges slapped on them by the school. Representatives of the parents again met the MoE officials on Thursday urging them to intervene.

The school increased the fees after shifting from a villa in Abu Dhabi to the new spacious premises in Mussafah.

However, Khaleej Times has learnt that the school charged the parents the new tuition fee despite a circular from the MoE on June 18 ordering it not to increase any charges as the 2007-2008 academic session has started. The circular issued on June 18 (a copy of which is with Khaleej Times) allowed the school to effect the hike from the next academic year. The ministry also clarified that it had approved the school’s demand to increase the tuition fee on the condition that it would be implemented only in the 2008-2009 session.

Whenever the harried parents approached the school authorities, the authorities had countered them saying they have the MoE’s approval to hike the fees.

“During all these days, the school had kept us in the dark about the MoE circular,” a parent, B.C., told Khaleej Times yesterday.

According to the petition to the ministry, signed by 278 parents, the school hiked transportation charges from Dh100 to Dh180 per month. The school authorities, however, refute the claim saying they have increased the charges only by Dh30 as they used to charge Dh150 last year.

The parents insist that they were charged only Dh100 earlier but after the school was shifted to Mussafah, the authorities charged them Dh80 more. “As per our calculation, the overall increase for all classes has gone up to 76 per cent as mentioned in the petition to the Undersecretary of MoE,” the parents said.

The principal of the school, said: “The increase in the tuition fee is only 40 per cent and the transportation charges 20 per cent. This is reasonable and we are not going to rescind it as we have got approval from the MoE.”

The principal said the hike was to cope with the additional financial burden incurred by the school after shifting to the new premises.

When the parents approached the school earlier, they were showed the letter of approval for the fee hike from the MoE.

The parents first received a circular from the school on May 15 about the increase in the fees. They submitted separate petitions soon after to the MoE requesting the ministry to order the school to reinstate the old fee structure.

As many as 278 parents held a meeting at the Kerala Social Centre here last week and signed the mass petition urging the ministry to intervene.