The Ministry of Education has approved half of the requests submitted by private and international schools to increase tuition fees in the upcoming academic year.

Private schools cited financial woes as the main reason behind the request to raise fees, especially in the aftermath of the ministry’s decision to implement a minimum monthly wage of SR 5,000 for Saudi teachers.

Arab News found several parents expressing their concern and distress regarding the ministry’s decision to approve the school fee hikes.

According to Mohammed Naeem, a father of four, the Ministry of Education should consider the mounting financial pressures facing parents.

“Private school fees are already exorbitant compared to community schools and despite this discrepancy, they still want to increase fees. It is not fair to us, as our salaries have not increased, while prices have risen up to 40 percent. And now many parents will also be severely affected by the decision to increase tuition fees,” he said.

Naeem suggested that the Ministry of Education set specific criteria that schools must adhere to prior to increasing their fees and that they should only be allowed to increase fees by a certain percentage and not 100 percent.

Another parent, Mumtaz Khan, said raising school fees will have implications on children’s education, especially among parents with low income.

“In such a situation, I would like to ask how we can afford good education for our children. This decision will eventually segregate the quality of children’s education depending on the income of their parents and it might mean that children from disadvantaged backgrounds would not receive quality education,” he said.

Shazia Youness, a mother of two, said many schools do not provide adequate levels of education for students and yet continue to increase fees yearly. “The Ministry of Education should check the quality of education in these schools,” she said.