The Ministry of Education has agreed to a request by 3,000 international schools to raise their fees by SR1,000 annually in the new academic year.

Mansour Al-Khunaizan, chairman of the national committee for private and international education at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC), said that the decision was market-related and took into account losses incurred by Saudi investors because of the Ministry of Labor's new laws.

“There are about 3,000 international schools in the Kingdom operating at different levels of education. They had issued a demand to increase the fees from the coming academic year. The increase will amount to no less than SR1,000 for each student.”

The committee also accused the Labor Ministry of being inflexible and abusive in its dealings with female expat teachers working at international schools. The committee warned that the ministry's decision could lead to the closure of many of these schools that currently accommodate about 500,000 male and female students.

He said the Ministries of Labor, Education and Interior had signed an order for the owners of international schools to disregard the contracts they had with female teachers if they did not transfer their sponsorship.

“About 30 to 40 percent of female teachers refused to transfer their sponsorship because it was not convenient for them,” said Al-Khunaizan.

He said the ministry’s decision was “unjust and inflexible,” which included the threat to close 40 percent of international schools if they failed to comply.

In an earlier statement, Nora Omari, deputy chairman of the national

education commission at the CSC, said that the Ministries of Labor and Education would have meetings to find suitable options for the female dependents of expatriates to work as teachers at private schools.

Omari said schools would close down because female teachers were reluctant to change their sponsorship and forfeit the advantages of having their husbands and fathers as sponsors. “It was very disappointing for them to lose their jobs because many have been in the Kingdom for over 20 years.”

Al-Khunaizan urged the labor ministry to provide schools with more visas to recruit teachers.