JEDDAH — Private and international schools in the Kingdom have criticized the fees and tuition fixed for them by the Ministry of Education for the next academic year. According to ministry sources, a number of schools were unanimous that the fees were too low and would not meet their high expenses. The ministry, according to local press reports, has set the new fees on the websites of all departments of education in the Kingdom. The ministry ordered all private and international schools as well as those teaching the Egyptian syllabus to abide by the new charges. The sources said by publishing the fees on the websites, the ministry wanted to ensure schools did not hike their charges without its knowledge. According to the new fee structure for private schools, the fees for primary education will be SR4,500-SR27,000, for intermediate schools the fees have been set at SR5,500-SR27,000 and SR9,000-SR31,000 for secondary schools. The fees for elementary classes in international schools will be SR5,100-SR26,000, for intermediate classes SR5,400-SR29,000 and SR6,600-SR34,000 for secondary. An official source of the ministry said nine private schools and six international schools have received the green light from the ministry to increase their fees. He said the ministry has refused to allow many other private and international schools to raise their fees because their justifications were “unconvincing”. The source, who did not want to be identified, said parents were angered by the ministry's approval to up the fees and said the hikes were not commensurate with the quality of education these schools provide. Many of the schools asked to be allowed to increase their fees to meet the rising costs of rents, maintenance, labor, air-conditioning, safety measures and the salaries of the teachers that were upped from SR3,000 to SR6,000. Omar Al-Amir, chairman of the national committee for private schools at the Council of the Saudi Chambers, said the committee was against the fees and asked the ministry to intervene. “The ministry should license the opening of more private and international schools so that the competition will force them to lower fees,” he said. Malik Bin Talib, head of the committee on private education at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said private schools do not honor the ministry's terms and conditions so they have no right to increase their fees. Mohammed Al-Amoudi, a parent, said private school fees were continuously on the rise even though some of these schools “do not have the quality education they claim to be providing”. Abu Rima, another citizen, said every year he pays registration fees of SR3,000. “Do these schools have the right to take this amount of money every year from us though we bear the costs of the uniform and the text books?” he asked.
