JEDDAH: Some private and international schools in the Kingdom have increased their fees by more than 25 percent putting parents in a dilemma because time was too short for them to look for other schools.

Some schools disclosed their new fees at the time of registration a few days before the start of the new academic year and so parents did not have enough time to shift children to other less expensive schools.

Abdul Aziz Al-Wattar, an employee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry who has two children studying in a private school, said he was surprised when he went to his daughter’s school and found that the fees had increased by more than SR1,000.

“Due to lack of time, I was obliged to pay though I was not prepared for it. The school never informed me that they were going to increase the fees this year,” he said.

Ahmed Saeed Yamani, a computer engineer, said he went to register his third son in one of the international schools in Jeddah and was shocked to find that the registration fees had increased from SR500 to SR1,500.

Omar Abu Zainah, a Lebanese working for an advertising agency in Jeddah, said the book fees in one of the private schools had risen to SR2,500 for the first, second and third elementary years.

Abu Zainah added that the hike was even greater for the senior years.

Muneer Salmeen, a Syrian working in the industrial zone, said that after a week of serious search for a cheaper private school he discovered that the fees were almost the same in every school.

“The only difference is in the details of the fees. While some schools add the costs of dress and books to the overall fees others are giving these separately,” he said.

The rise in fees has had knock-on effects for some parents. Salmeen said the beginning of the school year represented a nightmare for him. “I often skip my annual vacation in order to save money to pay school fees. This year it was made worse by the overlapping of Ramadan, the Eid and the summer vacation,” he added.

Officials at a number of private and international schools justified the rise in the fees following the wave of high prices that, they said, had swept the whole world.

The owner of one private school, who identified himself as Abu Abdullah, said private schools are commercial projects in the field of education. “They have to be profitable, otherwise they would have to close down,” he said.

Hanan Al-Abdullah, the principal of a girls’ private school, said the rise in the fees was caused by the inclusion of extra activities such as swimming, home economics and others.