KHDA

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Westminster School by Gems Education pushing fees out of parents reach

Westminster School Dubai

Gems Education system Dubai is in another controversy. The Westminster School, a private British curriculum school in Al Ghusais run by Gems Education, has notified parents that it will charge Dh475 per subject for grades nine and higher, and Dh150 per subject for grade six in exam fees.

One parent feared this meant grade nine students who take eight subjects, for example, will have to pay Dh3,800 on top of their new tuition fees of Dh8,459 – equal to 45 per cent of tuition.

The school management has told Gulf News that all international schools charge fees for board examinations separate to the main fees. At the Westminster School it is a charge of Dh475 per exam, per student, which is far cheaper than those charged by the British Council.

Parents, on the other hand, said that there are no board exams in grades six, nine or 11, adding students take British IGCSE (O Level) exams in grade 10, and GCE exams in grade 12 (AS Level) and grade 13 (A Level).

Previously, Gems Education system was in the news for another such controversy of fleecing parents by raising the tuition fees.

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Dubai shuts down three free zone universities

Knowledge Village Dubai

Three universities operating from free zones in Dubai have been closed, while six others are under scrutiny, a top official from Knowledge and Human Development Authority said.

Mohammed Darwish, head of the Systems and Control Section at the authority, said that they cancelled the commercial and academic licenses of UEIMS Medical Science University, Mahatma Gandhi University, and International Institute for Management and Technology, Emarat Al Youm reported.

He did not mention the number of students who were affected by these decisions. However, he said the universities were asked to help the students and transfer them to other universities.

“Some of the universities which were closed down or put under test have gone to operate in other emirates which do not follow strict procedures and rules,” he said.

He said the authority had to cancel the licenses of these universities as their programmes did not match the quality of education followed by their mother university.

“Also some of them did not belong to the original universities, and they were just using the names under special agreement with the original universities. This is against our rules as all the universities must be real branches of well-known universities in their mother country. This is a must as the students who graduated from these universities did not get their certificates attested by the mother university, and thus we acted to protect the rights of students.”

Currently, there are 16,000 students studying in 32 international universities and colleges in the free zone areas. Of these, 2,300 UAE national students are studying to get higher degrees.

From: Emirates-247

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22% of Indian, Pakistani schools in Dubai suck!

Dubai Indian School
22% of Indian, Pakistani schools in Dubai suck!

Well, were we not aware of how good Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai are? Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) has just confirmed what most of expat parents already know, most of Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai suck.

According to DSIB study reported in Arabian Business, one in five Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai rate unsatisfactory. Of the 23 schools inspected, 7 were categorized as good and 11 were acceptable while 5 were rated as unsatisfactory.

None of the schools were classified as outstanding, a statement from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) added.

The DSIB’s inspections were the first for Indian and Pakistani schools in the emirate and results include a 20-page report on each school, which will be made public on the KHDA’s website soon.

Last year, the first inspection of schools showed nearly 10 percent were rated unsatisfactory. This implies that Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai are deteriorating by the day.

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Six Private Schools Ordered To Refund Fees

Follwing Dubai Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)’s decision that Private schools should not collect tuition fees in advance, six private schools in Dubai have been ordered to refund tuition fees, collected in advance, after they continued to violate directives issued by education authorities.

Khaleej Times reported that two of these returned fees to parents on Thursday while the other four are expected to follow suit this week.

Institutions are, however, allowed to collect a registration deposit of five per cent of the school fees with a maximum of Dh500. Many parents have written to KHDA confirming their children’s schools had rectified the situation.

Parents of private schools maintained that schools were not heeding directives issued by education authorities.

Similarly, parents from Sharjah are complaining that their wards’ schools were demanding fees in advance.
However, the Sharjah Education Zone said it had not received any complaints from parents so far.

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