Al-Wurood school to review fees hike

Al-Wurood International School said yesterday that it would review its recent fee hike in response to grievances expressed by parents. “We have already informed parents about our decision to cut down on fee hikes,” said Principal K. Rahamathullah.
Parents were angry when the school announced its recent plan to double fees without consulting them. Many parents were worried that the exorbitant fee hike would affect the education of their children as they would not be able to pay.
In a circular issued on Feb. 5, management said it was forced to hike fees because of growing expenses. “We have to pay huge rents for three separate campuses for boys, girls and the KG section and there is a 100 percent increase in rents of school buildings,” the principal said.
A 50 percent reduction in student strength as a result of Education Ministry’s directives was another reason. The student-teacher ratio at the school has been reduced to 1:25, Rahamathullah said, adding that the fee hike was essential to meet increasing expenditures.
“We have to pay high salaries to get qualified teachers from India as part of our efforts to maintain high quality,” the management said. But parents would not accept the huge fee hike, which for them was unfair and unaffordable.
According to one parent, the fees for the Grade VI-X students rose by 84 percent from SR 380 to SR 700, canceling out the discount being offered to the second child. Fees for Grade XI-XII students jumped 33 percent from SR 600 to SR 800. The transport fee has been increased by 46 percent from SR 150 to SR 220.
“We will reduce the fees to a reasonable amount. We are still working on the revised fee pattern and this will be announced within a week,” said a management spokesman who requested anonymity. However, he pointed out that the school would impose the new fee hike without alteration during the next academic year.
Rahamathullah said the school had to scale down discounts due to the reduction in student strength. “So far, all these additional costs of around 50 percent were shouldered by management without burdening parents,” he said.
The spokesman said the school wanted to provide quality education while making use of modern facilities. “We are providing new generation programs tied up with external service providers like Edurite. We have introduced Smart Class, Robotics, Xseed, Edusports, Edumedia, Spacious Science Labs, Mobile Science Labs and NIIT–Maths Lab,” the spokesman said, adding that these programs have increased expenditures.
But parents are asking the management what is the use of its advanced educational programs if its abnormal fees force many students to abandon the school. The spokesman said parents should look for schools that offer education at fees affordable to them.