Costly lessons

Costly lessons Dhanusha Gokulan / 6 May 2013 If it weren’t for both their incomes, paying for the education of their sons would be out of the question for Pakistani parents Javed Aqib and Umaira Aqib. “My older son is in the seventh grade, and the younger one is in grade five. We spend about Dh3,000 on their tuition fees per month. For an average middle class family like ours, it is very expensive. But it is also an unavoidable expenditure,” said Umaira. According to a recent survey conducted by whichschooladvisor.com , for a vast majority of parents in the UAE, education is a major expense, with close to one in five families spending more than 30 per cent of their monthly household budget on school fees. The most common answer from respondents is between 11 per cent and 15 per cent of their combined household incomes. Which School Advisor (WSA), the UAE’s first dedicated school guide, was launched a little over a month ago to address the key needs of expatriate parents in the UAE. The survey was conducted online over a period of five weeks through March and April with 596 responses from parents around the UAE. Forty-five per cent of respondents live in Abu Dhabi, 43 per cent in Dubai, almost 10 per cent in Sharjah with the remainder spread through the other four emirates. The website has a lot of material for parents, employers and schools to digest and discuss. The website suggested that educating children in the UAE’s private school system is expensive. Until recently it was an expense that many expatriate parents could expect to share to some degree with the employer who had persuaded them to spend the key years of their career in the UAE. About 62 per cent of respondents in the survey said that they cover the entire cost of their children’s school fees in the UAE. A further 24 per cent receive a contribution from their company while just 13 per cent have their school fees paid in full. When asked whether the school fees paid represent ‘good value for the quality of school offering’, a key factor is whether parents pay fees themselves. Fifty-four per cent of those who have fees paid think those fees represent ‘good value’ while this falls to just 27 per cent of those who pay in full themselves. Almost one in five families spend more than 30 per cent of their household income on school fees. This varies considerably, however, depending on particular school curricula. Those families spending 10 per cent or less of their income on fees is 42 per cent for Indian curriculum schools, 28 per cent of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools, 25 per cent of British curriculum schools and 19 per cent of American curriculum schools. Most parents interviewed by Khaleej Times weren’t aware of the website until they were informed about it. “I didn’t know about it. But once I checked the website out, I think it is great. Especially for new parents who are planning to move to the UAE. And even for resident parents, the site is great,” said Brian McPhearson, a chartered accountant. McPhearson’s daughters are students of Dubai International Academy. “My girls have been going to DIA for two years now. When we moved here, finding a suitable school for the girls was a task. We had to depend on suggestions given by other parents who’ve been living here. But websites like this really help,” he added. Indian parent and Dubai resident Shailesh Shrivastav said: “I have three kids and I’ll be honest. Educating them is perhaps one of my biggest expenses. I like the idea of a guide for parents to choose good schools for kids, but perhaps, particularly Asian curriculum schools need to be educated on ‘how to manage finances’ and it is a myth if people believe that quality education is only available in expensive schools.” Apart from surveys and findings, the website also offers individual reviews of different schools in the country and guides on choosing good schools for kids. Users can also register on the website and have discussions with other members and ask for school-related advice. dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com Taylor Scott International