In these low inflation times, there are not many goods and services that have doubled in cost over the last five years. Unfortunately for foreign workers here in the Kingdom, private education is one place where some fees have done just this.

Everyone wants the best for their children. All over the world, families make very real sacrifices, just so their kids can go to school. They want them to pick up the level of education that perhaps they themselves did not have the opportunity to gain. Better education means better jobs. Better jobs means better pay. Families can lift themselves by their bootstraps out of poverty. Poverty’s greatest ally is ignorance. Good schooling breaks a vicious circle.

But there are limits to what even the most devoted parent can pay. It seems clear that at some schools, families are reaching those limits. Poorly-paid expatriates are seeing a large proportion of their earnings sucked up by school fees. This undermines their ability to send home money. It also means that they struggle to meet the costs of other essentials of food and accommodation.

To the relief of many, the government has now stepped in. Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil has ordered that private schools may not increase fees unless the hikes have first been approved by the ministry. The principle is excellent. However, the practice may be harder. Local eduction officials are going to have to form a pretty clear idea of the current level of fees. This is not as simple as it sounds. The cost of education may include textbooks, class materials, uniforms, extra tuition, extracurricular activities such as sports and the provision of school meals or specialist medical attention for disabled students.

By no means all private schools offer a fixed curriculum. Indeed at the top end of the market, one of the strengths of the private system is that it can tailor teaching to student ability. Unscrupulous schools have clearly been loading their charges, and then some. By the time officials get around to checking out some providers, fees may even have been bumped up further.

There are other ways in which this vexed issue can be addressed. The first is the regular school inspection regime. At the moment this tends to focus on the efficacy of teaching, the quality of the teachers themselves and the way in which a school is administered. To this ought to added the quality assessment of Value for Money.

The temptation of course for parents is to assume that the most expensive schools are likely to be the best. This yardstick is by no means foolproof. Schools may do a very good job of presenting themselves to visiting parents. But the reality, when a child arrives for classes, can turn out to be very different.

In this respect, parents themselves bear a high degree of responsibility. Education cannot be a matter of fire and forget. A caring guardian will be checking to see how a child is getting on. Good schools ought to be issuing end of term reports. There ought to be parent-teacher evenings. The students themselves should be able to provide a pretty good idea of how well they are learning.

Therefore, market forces need to come into play. Parents who worry about the education of their children receive should be talking to other parents. They should be comparing notes. Personal recommendation can be a powerful tool. Expatriate websites already do much to assist foreigners in finding their way about life in the Kingdom. They are especially useful for newly-arrived families. If dedicated online educational resources can be created, they could plug in to Education Ministry reports and inspections. The ministry itself could support such initiatives.

The key is the dissemination of accurate information, as well as anecdotal evidence. The process will create a transparency that currently does not exist. The rip-off schools will be exposed. Since there is competition, they will either have to mend their ways and deliver value for money, or they will see their rolls plummet. Good schools will rightly prosper and expand.

In this respect, the private education sector could make a better job of linking up to enforce strong professional standards. They themselves can finger overcharging or failing schools. It will be to the benefit of their overall reputation.

Affordable education is important, not just for expatriate children but for the Saudi society in which they have come to live while their parents work here. The scandal of over-priced cheapskate private education has to be brought to an end.