Rates ranging between 10 and 50%
Schools offer discounts on fees in the event of "prior payment", "transfer" and "siblings"
Schools offered a discount on school bus fees by 500 dirhams per class. Photography: Ashok Verma
Private schools offered discounts on tuition fees, to encourage students ’families to register their children, including“ priority payment deduction ”and“ transfer discount ”, in addition to“ sibling discount ”and“ excellence grant ”, and the discount rates ranged between 10 and 50%.
A school displayed its tuition fees on a board at its entrance, showing the fees before and after the discount, in which the discount reached up to 2000 dirhams on the fees for each class.
A school director attributed the diversity in the financial facilities provided by schools to students' families to the impact of the material income of a large number of families due to the Corona pandemic, in addition to the multiplicity of private schools and the diversity of their curricula and educational services.
"Emirates Today" monitored funded ads on the social networking site "Facebook" for private schools in Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman, stating the availability of vacant seats, and the continued registration of students in classrooms, while students' families received messages inviting them to register in schools, including the facilities for payment. And the discounts offered by schools to them. Schools also hung banners "Registration is open" on their facades, in addition to the spread of advertisements confirming the continued admission of students from all grades, with medium and acceptable fees.
The parents of students received letters from a private school in Ajman, inviting them to register their children in it, explaining to them the discounts that I approved on the tuition fees, which included a 10% transfer discount from another school, a 10% discount on registration and payment precedence, in addition to a 10% discount. % For the new academic year, as it is the first batch that was registered in the school after its opening for the first time in the next academic year, as well as the “sibling discount,” whose percentage ranges between 10 and 25%.
While a private school in Sharjah presented a list of fee reductions approved by the Sharjah Private Education Authority, the list includes discounts on tuition fees of 2000 dirhams per class, and school bus fees by 500 dirhams per class, while there have been no changes to the fees for books and school uniforms.
Another school has set a grant that exceeds 50% as a deduction from school fees for the new academic year, with the aim of urging students to excel and excel, noting that this grant confirms the concern for the educational process to take precedence over other profit considerations.
For its part, a private school in Dubai announced its adoption of the "hybrid education" and "distance education" system, according to the choice of students' parents, and offered various discounts on its tuition fees, including a 50% discount on fees for the "pre-kindergarten" and "KG1" », 30% for“ KG2 ”, 20% for the siblings of students registered in the school, and 5% discount from fees for the priority of registration and payment. A school director in Sharjah, who refused to be named, confirmed that there are a large number of vacant seats in the school, indicating that his school is trying to preserve the students who are there by offering them financial discounts. He pointed out that the reason behind the multiplicity of discounts offered by schools to students' parents on tuition fees is the negative impact of recent health conditions on the income of many private sector workers, in addition to the presence of a large number of school seats vacant prior to the start of the new school year, which will start after 13 One day from now (August 30), adding: "This prompted students to search for schools with lower tuition fees to enroll their children in them, with the aim of reducing expenses in general, including the higher tuition fees in the family budget."
On the other hand, families of students in private schools: Alaa Ibrahim, Ahmed Seif and Salah Abdel Moneim confirmed that they are looking for low-fee schools to cope with the effects they are exposed to from the Corona pandemic, indicating that their financial conditions have been negatively affected by the pandemic. And they saw in the discounts offered by some schools an opportunity to support their financial conditions, which have been greatly affected, during the last period, noting that the lower tuition fees and discounts on them will be the first goal to determine which school they seek to enroll their children in, even if it is less in the quality of education that will be addressed by the role and family integration The school is to raise the student’s educational level.
Less tuition fees
Students' families have confirmed that they are looking for schools with lower tuition fees, because if the distance education system or hybrid education is implemented, they will deprive students of some of the educational services that they receive from school hours, most notably the social interaction between students, and the approved sports and artistic activities and others.
Schools have resorted to discounts due to the large number of vacant school seats.