Fahd Bin Jolaid
EVERY year we read news stories about private schools that raise tuition fees and add to the burden of parents who pay for their children’s education. The Ministry of Education does not do anything to stop these schools from increasing fees. It does not even issue a decision announcing its dismay at the increases.
Private schools always justify the increase by saying they are implementing new programs to upgrade the level of education while the truth is that they only do it because they want to earn more money. Another reason for this increase is because schools want to dismiss students whose parents have failed to pay tuition fees for their sons. The only thing private schools care about is how to get more money from their business. For them, money comes before education.
For the reader’s information, all private schools get financial aid from the government. Running a private school in our country is a profitable business.
I do not understand why the Ministry of Education is not taking any action and why it prefers to take a neutral position on this issue. By the way, I have talked about this issue several times over the past year. Today, the issue has surfaced again with the majority of private schools increasing their tuition fees.
How will parents respond to such increases? Some of them will probably transfer their children to public schools, making things worse for these schools whose classes are crowded with students. If a large number of students are going to be transferred to public schools, the Ministry of Education will have a problem coping with the increase.
