Education in private schools is getting costlier ever year and is putting lots of parents in a financially tough position. “I get a mini heart attack at the beginning of every academic year when I suddenly find out that fees of my three children, who study in private schools, have increased,” said Habib Salem, a father who finds it extremely difficult to manage his budget with the constant hike in fees of private schools. Registration forms for most of the private schools show a SR500 minimum fee hike every year. But in practice many of these schools exorbitantly raise fees and transportation charges every year without any prior information to parents. “The school doesn't bother giving information of fee hike to parents in advance; they just send me a message a week before the school reopens and it wrecks my yearly budget,” complained Habib. Private schools are divided into three categories based on their fee structure. First category comprises those private schools with the lowest annual tuition fees for kindergarten which is between SR5,000 and SR7,000; the second category include schools which charge SR7,000-SR14,000 annually for kindergarten and in the third category are schools which charge SR14,000 and above annually for kindergarten. Since there is no monitoring or ceiling on the fee structure, private schools raise charges of books and uniforms, miscellaneous fees and transportation costs along with registration and tuition fees. The most unfortunate fact is that rise in school charges does not reflect on the facilities and teaching standards of many of the private schools, which either rent villas or have small campuses. In short, education has become a lucrative commercial venture. “Charges of private schools are indeed too high. I think private schools increase their charges because they know that high income parents will pay,” said Umm Yehya. She added that owners of the schools must consider families who have limited income and wish to provide good quality of education to their children. “Most private schools claim that they increase registration fees because they want to raise the salaries of Saudi teachers,” said Umm Yehya. But the miserable truth is that the increase in fees did not include the salary of Saudi teachers. “My salary has remained the same since three years, even though the school where I teach increases fees every year,” said Umm Khadijah, a Saudi teacher who works in a private school. Salaries of Saudi teachers in private schools have sparked discussions and debates all over the Kingdom since the beginning of the new academic year, especially after the Royal Decree which was issued on 3 June., regarding increase in salary of female and male Saudi teachers in the private sector to SR5,000 in addition to SR600 as transportation allowance. However, owners of private schools refuse to acknowledge this and claim they have not received any official orders on the technique of implementing the Royal Decree. “We pay SR2,500 as basic salary for teachers and SR600 for transportation allowance,” said Yehya Al-Sha'lani, Director of a private school in Jeddah. Owners also defend themselves and claim that it's reasonable to increase students' fees following the hike in prices of other commodities all over the Kingdom. “It is logical to increase the fees as the prices of vegetables, fruits and food have also increased in the Saudi market,” Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, Director of a private school told the Saudi Gazette Tuesday. “Frankly speaking, no body refused this increase as many parents paid the fee because they know that their children will get the best education,” said another private school director who wanted to remain anonymous. The common advantages of private schools are less number of students in the class which increases their level of understanding, intensive English language courses and computer as well as life skills courses. “I decided to move my kids from government school to private school after I discovered that the teachers in public schools are only giving theoretical information to students without explanation,” said Jabra Safhi, a mother of two children who are studying in a private school. She added that she decided to register her kids in a private school because of life skills courses that are offered such as courses in leadership and problem solving, which allows them to succeed in the future by adapting with society. __
