Indian schools rue ‘meagre’ fee hike while parents remain ‘overburdened’
As frequent increase in tuition fees remains a major burden for a large number of Indian parents in Qatar, officials of many Indian schools, which have been allowed to hike the fees this year, say the hike is not substantial enough to meet their growing expenses.
Inquiries have revealed that DPS Modern Indian School (DPS-MIS), Doha Modern Indian School (DMIS), Olive International School and Ideal Indian School have got permissions to increase fees from the authorities concerned this year.
However, parents of children studying in most of these schools have reportedly not received an official communication from the school authorities in this regard.
While DMIS has got permission to increase overall fee of a student by six percent, the other three schools have been allowed to increase the fees by QR500 per student annually.
The increased fees are effective from April 1 this year, according to the school officials.
A top official of DPS-MIS said that the permission for an annual hike of QR500 per student is far below the amount the school had applied for to meet its growing expenses.
"The hike is too little to meet our expenses. The additional annual cost we incur on increasing salaries of staff and teachers, rents of staff accommodation and school maintenance cannot be met with this kind of fee hike," the official said.
Compared to schools of other nationalities, the official said, fees at Indian schools are very low while the expenses are the same.
Ideal Indian School Principal Syed Shoukath Ali said he expected granting of a much bigger hike in fees given the fact that the school got Qatar National School Accreditation (QNSA) recently.
"Fees at Ideal Indian School are the lowest among all the Indian schools in Qatar. Even the newest of Indian schools have much higher fees compared to us. Despite this we got permission for an annual increase of QR500 per student. This will not serve our purpose," Ali said.
DMIS Principal Rakesh Singh Tomar said the permitted fee hikes will not be enough to meet the school's growing expenses.
Meanwhile, many parents have expressed concern over frequent fee hikes, a number of whom are yet to be informed about the latest increase.
"I’ve no information about the fee hike. The school is yet to communicate to me about it. We’re always overburdened," parent of a DPS-MIS student said.
When contacted, an official of the school said that the increased fee will be collected from the second term.
"The second term fee will also include the arrear from the first term," the official said.
Although other schools are claiming to have communicated parents about the fee hikes, many parents said they have no such information.
Contrary to the claims of Ideal Indian School that all parents have been communicated though SMS and e-mails about the fee hike, parent of a school student said he had no such information.
DMIS principal said that details of the new fee structures are on the school's website. Besides, the parents have also been informed about the fee hike through SMS and e-mails, the principal said.
Principals of other prominent Indian schools like Birla Public School and Bhavans Public School, however, said that there will be no fee hikes in their schools in the current academic year.
Courtesy: Qatar-tribune.com
I meant to say without completing the contract for some emergency or genuine reason..
Honeybunch: What you're saying they're doing is illegal .. Take them to the labour court
They only want hike in school fees.. As if they will increase salaries for teaches..even if they do it it hardly makes a difference. And moreover if a teacher resigns with completing the contract even for a genuine reason with regards to health the school does not pay the end of service benefits no matter since how many years you have slogged in that school and above that you have to even pay back some fine to them. Management of schools are least concerned about all this. All matter is their bloody profit.
May be the teacher if she dies due to health issue only then they might react.
WT: They are all profitable - They just want more profits
There is no control over increasing rent that might lead to a crisis sooner or later. Many are complaining from this issue regardless of both parents working or not. It's a simple human right for the wife to be employed with her own benefits and so is the husband. The global benchmark of rent to income is 6-8% in most parts of Europe and 30% in the rest of the worlds popular cities...so if your making 7000, your house rent should be 2100 or less and so on. According to the article house rent increases are causing problems even in education which should raise a red flag that a minimum of 30-40% of the working class kids will be illiterate because most can't afford. If we think individually and think personal interest then we won't strive as a community. But if we think collectively for the benefit of all we will strive locally and internationally.
Close the schools if they can't be run profitably.
Not a reasonable hike.
nijesh: The government has nothing to do with house rents .. We come here knowing what the situation is ...If you can't afford it - don't come ..
Too many people come here. Bring their families and then put them in hardship
Its better that the Government come into play for house rents. The house rents are still at insane rates...real estate teams and the actual house owners are still earning good income at this current crisis. I wonder why they are so greedy. Once the room rents are reasonable it will be a safe bet for families to live a peaceful life by managing all their expenses in Qatar. I really appreciate all the initiate that the officials are taking to make Qatar a best place to live, but it would be much more better if there is a proper agenda for house rents.
Compared to DPS MIS and other school Olive international is taking the highest fees. which more than a parent can afford, it is coming nearly 4000 per student per term, at first std.so if two children are studying means 8000 per term, this too much for a parents if both parents are not working. ideal indian , mes school are on the fair list. affordable.
Ideal Indian School is the best school for middle class people because they provide Education at a fair amount of fees unlike DMIS and DPS.Education is same in all these three schools.
(SOURCE:STUDENT IN IDEAL FOR 8 YEARS)
OK.. So from the article some schools aren't raising fees, others are and are complaining that the hike is not enough..
So, what is the conclusion ?