HAIL — A number of schools have notified parents of their new increased fees for the next academic year, less than five months after Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil issued directives preventing all private and international schools from raising their charges without government approval.



A ministry source objected to the new fees and said they have to first be approved by a ministry committee before they can be implemented.



The source, who opted not to be identified, said there are a number of steps the application for raising fees has to pass through before final approval.



He said school owners have to first fill in a special form. “The application will be thoroughly scrutinized by a branch committee before it is electronically passed over to the ministry's preparatory committee,” he said.



The source said the preparatory committee would carefully study the request before it forwards it to the main committee for final approval.



He said private and international schools that have already obtained the ministry's approval to increase their fees would not be allowed to make any new hikes for two academic years.



There are 3,588 private, international and foreign schools in the Kingdom. — SG