New regulations add to financial woes of international schools

The new guidelines stipulated by the Ministry of Education have created additional financial woes for international schools, making it difficult for them to break even and stay financially afloat, according to local school owners.
Lubna Karim, owner of an international school in Jeddah, told Arab News that under the new directives schools have to have not less than 7,000 square meters of land. 
"However, with high land prices in Jeddah at around SR 3,000 per square meters, we will need to pay SR 21 million just for land,” she said.
That would mean charging between SR 35,000 and SR 40,000 for tuition per academic year. That would take a hundred years to make a profit even with 1,000 students.
Salma Hussein, another school owner, said it has become difficult to hire expat housewives as teachers since their iqamas are non-transferable.
According to her, no one will agree to come to work in the Kingdom for SR 3,500 per month; besides they will demand transportation and other expenses. 
“I don’t know how I will manage to hire teachers for the next academic year,” said Salma.
In addition, the new regulations demand international school owners hire Saudi teachers and staff in order to fulfill Nitaqat requirements.
“The problem here is that many Saudi teachers do not understand American or British curriculums and therefore are unqualified and need further training,” Karim said.
Many school owners agree that the cost of the new regulations will not fall upon anyone, but the students. “How are students to get quality education if the financial odds are stacked against schools?” Salma asked, adding that the new guidelines have also prohibited them from raising tuition to cope with the financial costs.
Nonetheless, the Ministry of Education’s committees responsible for processing the applications for tuition fees’ increases has said it has based its decision after taking into account the cost of education, school efficiency, educational achievements, results of students on tests conducted by the ministry, and schools’ success in nationalizing educational and administrative posts. The ministry urged schools whose application were rejected to submit a review letter within 15 days of the decision’s date.