Delays or defaults in paying school fees are creating a lot of problems to both parents and schools in Dubai, despite being in a legally parent-school contract PSC in Dubai.
Parents are complaining that sometimes schools are adopting “insensitive” ways of extracting overdue fees, such as “naming and shaming” the student concerned in the classroom or refusing to take the pupil on the school bus.
Schools authorities, on the other hand, said that they have to write off huge amount of money because many parents delay or refuse to pay fees on time.
According to the rules,a school cannot terminate the admission of a student for non-payment of fees.
Some schools in Dubai said they would like to see a more stringent action-oriented approach from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).
The PSC, introduced by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, seeks to check and balance the interests of schools and parents on a variety of issues, including school fee payments.
According to the Parent School Contract, it is the responsibility of parents to pay fees on time and, in any case of due in payment for a long period, the school has the right to withhold the results.
A senior spokesperson from the management of an Asian school said that they have had to write off millions of dirhams over the years.
“As per regulations, we do withhold the result from the parent, but the result has to be prepared and submitted to the authorities. In the case of parents of very young children up to grade two, they do not require any Transfer Certificate (TC) if they are relocating back to their respective country, they just suddenly take the child out of school towards the end of the academic year without any notice and we are left with fees pending for the entire year,” the spokesperson said.
He added that sometimes the parents who are in default for many months come to the negotiating table, they are asking for heavy discounts towards the end of the academic year. “If some parent owes Dh5,000, they want to pay only half the fee and we try to close the issue as we feel we will at least recover a partial amount.
A senior representative of an Indian-curriculum school said that nearly 40 to 45% of parents prefer not to pay the fees for almost a better part of the year and keep it pending to the very end.
“Most of the schools have a fee waiver policy for genuine cases where a parent gets into a sudden financial problem or parents are in between jobs. We do provide such relief. However, since all we can do is withhold the final results, parents like to push payment to the very end. In any case the results are processed and sent to the relevant education authority and parents are able to obtain the results. If the child is promoted, he or she will attend the new class in the next academic year.”
“The relationship between schools and families is based on clear terms and conditions that have been agreed upon as part of the parent-school contract. This agreement provides a reference to resolve any disputes between the parents and schools and KHDA upholds the contract if there is no amicable solution between them.
“School authorities cannot harass any student for fee due and schools must be encouraged to work with parents and agree on a suitable payment plan. Parents also must the responsibility to meet their financial commitment towards the school and schools have the right to receive fees in return for the education they are providing at the agreed time in the contract. Schools can withhold the final exam results and transfer certificates until the fees are paid in full. They can also reject a re-registration request for the next academic year if fees are not paid or on repeated history of payment delay.”
Expat levy to affect Indian schools in Saudi
AMandeep
