Saudi schools raise fees by up to 30% ... for more pay

JEDDAH, June 15,2011 (Arab News): Private schools in the Kingdom are anxiously waiting for a meeting in Riaydh on Monday between the National Committee for Education and Training and the Ministry of Education. They come together to discuss the implications of the decision to introduce a minimum wage of SR5,000 for Saudi teachers on private school fees.

Following the decision, some private schools raised their fees by up to 30 percent in order to be able to pay the salaries of their Saudi teachers. The average fees under these raises are SR9,500, SR11,500 and SR12,500 for elementary, intermediate and secondary schools respectively. Some elite private schools have gone far beyond this.

Speaking to Arab News, member of the committee for private and international girl schools in the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) Fareeda Muhammad Ali Farsi said the committee contained all its remarks on the implications of the decision to increase salaries of Saudi teachers in a report, which they sent to the Riyadh meeting. She questioned if the decision would be implemented on all private Saudi teachers, or only on the new ones. She also wondered if all Saudi school cadres including administrators would be covered by the decision.

She said the committee warned in its report that some private schools with reasonable fees might close down, thus increasing the pressure on government schools that were already overcrowded.

Fareeda said it was unfair to ask parents to pay more money to private schools, especially under the current high inflation levels.

Dakheelallah Hamad Al-Siraisri, a member of the JCCI's committee on boy schools, said the decision to increase the salaries of Saudi teachers in private schools had not yet been confirmed by the Ministry of Labor. However, he opined that the Human Resources Development Fund should increase its support to private schools so as to encourage Saudi teachers to stay there, given that there were also 35,000 vacancies with good salaries for Saudi teachers in government schools.

Al-Siraisri called for job stability for Saudi teachers, whether in public or private schools, and said the Riyadh meeting today would discuss the raising of fees in private schools. "We will then accordingly decide," he added.

Other education sources said the department of private and foreign education in the ministry was authorized to supervise the process of education in these schools, but not the fees, which was the concern of other parties.

The sources recalled a decision of the Council of Ministers preventing the private schools from raising fees in the middle of the year and said the fees of private schools were usually determined by "demand and supply," and by their locations.

There are more than 22,000 male and female Saudi teachers in private schools and 17,936 foreigners. Riyadh alone has 250 private schools for all educational levels. According to statistics, the private schools make about SR4.5 billion annually.