Private schools in Abu Dhabi competed to attract students, by offering discounts on registration fees, which amounted to 30%. Schools have announced their willingness to offer a discount on fees, if the distance education system is implemented, up to 50%.
The headmaster confirmed a decrease in the number of new students, especially in kindergarten, compared to an increase in the percentage of students transferred from schools (compared to the usual rates), noting that many of the students ’parents are afraid of registering their children in kindergarten, and searching for schools with reduced fees to transfer their children The older it is.
In detail, «Emirates Today» monitored funded advertisements on social media sites, promoting private schools operating in the emirate through the advantages of education in them, and encouraging students ’families to register their children, take advantage of the granted discounts that varied between discounts for siblings and relatives, and exempt from registration fees, In addition to discounts on tuition fees, and an acknowledgment that additional discounts will apply, if the distance education system is fully implemented.
Schools in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain (tracking the ministerial curriculum, the American, the British, and the Indian) published ads inviting students ’families to expedite the registration of their children and obtain a discount ranging between 50 and 30% of the value of tuition fees, in addition to 25% to reduce transportation fees, noting Providing many advantages, making it the best option, including providing foreign teachers (their mother tongue is English) to support the learning process, security means to ensure student safety, and learning plans that suit all levels.
And one of the famous schools in Abu Dhabi (British Curriculum) published an announcement about opening registration for one of its new branches, and offering discounts on tuition and transportation fees, with a promise to make a 50% discount on tuition fees, in case of applying distance education, pointing out that the offer is valid for The new branch only, while another school provided 20% discount on tuition fees for new students, with an additional 15% discount for siblings.
The director of a private school, Adel Mohamed, attributed the resort to advertisements via the social media, although the school used to raise the slogan "full number" throughout the previous years, to the presence of vacant seats, especially in kindergarten, since "the occupancy rate did not exceed 40% of the school's capacity "Noting that" most schools face this issue, and they have vacant seats in the classrooms for the third year in a row. "
He said: «We tried to send a message through social networking sites, through which we confirm that we offer a distinguished education at reasonable fees, and announced discounts on the registration of the first child in the school at a value of 10% of the school fees, and in the case of two children, the guardian will receive 15% discount on the total fees And the discount will increase to 20% if there are three children for the family in school.
The recent statistics of the Department of Education and Knowledge showed that there are more than 40,000 vacant seats in private schools last year, noting that the number of private school students represents about 65% of the total number of students in the emirate, and citizen students accounted for 27% of the total students, compared to 73% Of the resident students.
28% of students in private schools in Abu Dhabi study the American curriculum, 23% the British curriculum, 19% the Ministry of Education curriculum, 18% the Indian curriculum, 5% the Sabis curriculum, and 7% other curricula.
And the department expected that the number of students will reach 282 thousand students by the coming academic year 2020-2021.
The enrollment officer at the American Curriculum School, Sandy Noren, stressed that private schools will face great challenges during the next academic year, prompting the majority of them to search for new ways to attract students, whether by advertising via social media, or by phone messages, in addition to the e-mail of the registrants on its database , Noting that the challenges include vacant seats in many classes, the weakness of the new registration, especially in the kindergarten stage, and the percentage of students moving to other schools, both inside and outside the country.
An administrative official in a well-known, high-fee chain of schools (who asked not to be named) revealed that enrollment is low this year in kindergartens, noting that the low enrollment did not include only new students, but also witnessed transfer students.
She explained that school officials were receiving dozens of requests from parents who wanted to transfer their children from other schools to them, which did not happen this year. The number of requests to transfer students from the school was higher than the new registration requests, which is the opposite of what happened every year.
And she said: “In our schools, about 20% of KG1 students enrolled in the ending school year, their parents did not re-register them for the past year despite sending more than one notice to them that they need to register to ensure the student’s seat is reserved for the next year.” Noting that “many families reported The school is not interested in registering its children this year, and it intends to enroll them directly in the first year of the year after next, due to their fear of (Corona) and the lack of distance education suitable for young children ».
School fees
Recent statistics - issued by the Department of Education and Knowledge - showed that 7.29% of students are enrolled in schools with very high fees (more than 50 thousand dirhams annually), 18.73% in schools with high fees (from 30 to 50 thousand dirhams), and 19. 66% in schools with average fees (from 20 to 30 thousand dirhams), 27.36% in schools with reduced fees (from 10 to 20 thousand dirhams), and 26.96% in schools with very low fees (less than 10 thousand dirhams).
Schools were distributed according to the value of fees as follows:
20 schools have very high tuition fees, 41 are with high fees, 41 are middle schools, 61 are low fees, and 59 schools have very low fees.
65%
Of the total number of students in the emirate receiving education in private schools.
40
One thousand vacancies in Abu Dhabi Private Schools last year.