(MENAFN- The Peninsula) QNA / The Peninsula
Doha: The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has rejected a whopping 81.25 percent of applications by private schools and kindergartens to increase their tuition fees.
This year ministry received requests from 144 schools and kindergartens to increase their fees out of which 29 were rejected for not submitting required paperwork or were less than three years of operation.
The department reviewed the remaining 115 applications and accepted only 27 requests to increase the tuition fees, while rejecting the remaining 88 applications.
This was disclosed by the Director of the private schools' licensing department, Hamad Al Ghali during a press conference today.
The increase in fees ranged from 2 percent to 20 percent. The names of schools were not disclosed yet. Only 4 kindergartens received permissions for a hike of 15 percent or more, while the rest of them are 10 percent or less.
He noted that currently there is no ceiling on tuition fees, but there is a plan to establish a ceiling after schools are divided into different categories.
The academic calendar for private schools will start on August 29, 2018. The mid-term break will be from December 23 to January 3. Schools will actually start on January 6, given that the 3rd of January will be a Thursday. The spring break will be from April 7-11. Given April 11 is a Thursday, school will start on April 14.
He, however, noted that schools of different communities are operated under the supervision of their embassies, which decide on their own academic calendar.
Ministry said Saturday that it was committed to transparency when it comes to tuition fees charged by private schools. They said that the parents have the right to know the fees before enrolling their children.
Advisor of the Minister of Education and Higher Education for Private Schools Affairs Tarek Al Abdullah said today in a press conference said that the ministry is committed to making the enrollment process very transparent for parents while deciding on a school for their children.
He said that all schools must announce their tuition fees for the 2018/2019 academic year before the beginning of registration on March 1. The school must inform the parents of the fee, so that they can decide whether they will enroll their ward in the same school or move to a different one.
Registration will take place from March 1-October 31. Parents can receive a refund of registration fees they paid till end of April 2018 if they are shifting to another school, but not after that.
He also said that evaluation of private schools has become a mandatory process in light of the new legislative powers the ministry now has.
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