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Now the schools are falling victims. I suspect some will not survive.



Dubai schools owed 'millions in unpaid fees'
By Anjana Sankar Senior Reporter
Published: April 01, 2009, 23:45


Dubai: Parents owe Dubai schools millions as overdue fees, Gulf News has learnt.

School managements say that staggering amounts of unpaid fees and dud cheques are putting them in a financial tight spot, thus forcing them to take harsh measures like suspending students.

Gulf News had reported the story of Sanan Joseph, a KG 1 student who was not allowed by the Winchester School to attend class because her mother failed to pay fees after she lost her job.

The school was unapologetic about their decision to take the four-year-old girl out of the class and maintained that they followed procedures by sending three warning letters to the student's parents.

Raminder Vig, Principal of the school, came on record and said nine children are currently under suspension at the school for non-payment of fees.


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"As of now, we have over Dh500,000 as outstanding fees. Three weeks ago, the amount was over Dh1.5 million. After we started sending warning letters to parents stating their wards would not be allowed to attend classes, half of the amount has come in," said Vig.

He added that currently there are 142 children who have fees overdue for two months, and 186 children, who have not paid a month's fee.

While parents accuse schools of turning education into a profit-making business, many schools said they are grappling with issues like dud cheques and delayed payments.

Essam Elghussein, Finance Manager of Dubai International School, said in the last term alone they had over Dh1 million in outstanding fees and 150 dud cheques.

"We do understand that it involves the future of children and hence allow parents time until the end of the year to settle the fees. We have a lot of children who delay fees for more than six months," said Elghussein.

Another private school in Dubai had over 100 bounced cheques in December when the term fee was paid. "We are put in an awkward position where parents do not pay fees and we constantly send reminders because we have to ensure that our teachers are paid and other expenses are taken care of," said the school principal on condition of anonymity.

During this global economic meltdown, school managements maintain, they are not immune from financial difficulties and hence have to take measures to ensure funds are available.

"We are private schools and do not receive grants from the government. We have to manage our rising operational costs from the fee we collect from students. But contrary to popular belief, many schools are in debt and parents who criticise us do not understand the other side of the story," said the principal of an Indian school.

Vig said his school has not made any profit in six years. "I want to ask parents how they would feel if we don't have teachers in a class. Whether we get paid or not, we have to ensure that our staff gets their salaries," he remarked.

According to him, the school is left with no option but to take harsh measures.

"Meanwhile, we do encourage parents to come forward and explain their situation so that we work out a payment plan suitable for them," added Vig.

Enumerating the school's financial constraints, Vig said last year alone they had to write off Dh162,291 as bad debt after students left without settling the pending fees.

Yet many schools insisted that they are being lenient in genuine cases where parents are in dire straits after losing jobs.

"We always listen to parents and ask them to come up with a suitable payment plan. We take action only in cases when parents tend to take advantage of our leniency," said Ashok Kumar, CEO of Dubai Indian High School.

After the gold rush: Getting paid in Dubai

27 March 2009

By Roxane McMeeken

It is claimed that the average contractor is owed £50m, while some consultants’ fees are being slashed in half. Roxane McMeeken finds out just how bad Dubai’s payment problems have become

Dubai is looking more and more like a place with a great future behind it. You can see that most clearly on the billboards erected beside empty sites and motionless tower cranes. “Ordinary is for other people” says the one where the Trump Tower was to have gone. Well, nemesis follows hubris: at least half of the emirate’s construction projects are “on hold” according to research firm Proleads, and nobody knows when, or if, they will start again.

New signs of the desperate state of Dubai’s developers are emerging every day. To look at the top three of them is telling: Union Properties has admitted it would welcome a merger after shelving its flagship £320m Formula One theme park in Dubailand. Emaar recently announced yet more cancelled projects: Asmaran (a 70 million ft2 , £17bn mixed-community scheme billed as “a jewel in the desert”), Maysan (three residential towers, also covering 70 million ft2) and Warsan (500 villas covering 3.4 million ft2). Meanwhile, Nakheel is facing a fraud investigation and has put its £2bn mall expansion plan on hold. It has also been hit by the halving of property prices on its celebrated Palm Jumeira project. Four-bedroom garden homes on a frond are going for £1.2m compared with £2.6m in July.

Where does all this leave the British consultants and contractors who count these developers among their top clients?

The short answer is, cash-strapped. Some are seeing their fees slashed – a Building survey of more than 150 people working in the UAE found that two-thirds of them have been asked to drop their prices recently. Others have been waiting for payments for six months and many are considering legal action.

What went wrong?

The first problem was that many developers were reliant on bank credit rather than oil revenue, as is often thought. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, has about 10% of the world’s oil, but Dubai has almost none. Banks were happy to keep lending to its developers as long as property prices were going up, and could act as collateral for more lending and more construction. But when property prices started tumbling, this virtuous circle turned vicious and clients ran out of money to pay consultants and contractors.

Abu Dhabi’s $10bn (£7bn) loan to Dubai announced in February appeared to offer a glimmer of hope, especially when the Dubai government said this money would mainly go to state-linked developers. But questions are being raised about how far it will go. For one thing, Dubai has declared that it owes at least $80bn (£56bn), of which almost a quarter falls due for repayment this year. The boss of a UK consultant with a large presence in Dubai says: “The $10bn won’t even cover developers’ interest payments.” He adds that compounding this is the fact that Dubai has so few ways to make money. Last year, 65% of its GDP was from real estate. He adds: “And there is no oil, no exports, no tax and 80% of the population are expats, many of whom are leaving.” Now the fee cuts are spreading to Abu Dhabi, where developer Aldar has written to consultants to ask them to cut fees – on live projects by up to 20%.

Late payments and fee cuts

So how bad has it got for UK firms? Certainly there is no sign that the government cash is filtering through. A senior source at a UK contractor in Dubai is fuming. He says: “The average contractor here is owed about £50m.”

A source at a UK project manager says some payments from Dubai developers are up to six months late; Mace and EC Harris are saying openly that it is taking at least three months to get paid. WSP is estimated to have set aside £4m to cover bad debts and project management consultancy Blair Anderson now employs someone full-time solely to chase payments in Dubai.

Meanwhile, the head of a British specialist working on a major project that stopped in October says his firm was paid 20% of what it was owed in January. He said he has no idea when he will get the rest, although he believes it will come through eventually, as his client is linked to the Dubai government.

Then there are the fee cuts, which are affecting most firms. Evan Anderson, group director of Blair Anderson, says the firm’s fees are between 20% and 30% lower than six months ago. But he is still better off than many architects, whose fees Anderson is renegotiating on behalf of clients. He says: “We are doing a lot of reverse briefing of designers. We’re asking them to cut their fees by up to half and to change the materials they’re specifying to bring down costs by about 30%.”

Contractors across Dubai are having to renegotiate tenders, typically resulting in 15-20% being lopped off their money. The senior contractor says: “Contractors here had been enjoying margins of seven, eight or nine per cent. Now clients are trying to get us to take margins as low as three or even one per cent. They also want to lengthen programmes so that cash flow is less onerous. It’s chaos.”

More pain for consultants is arriving in the form of deferred payment plans. Mark Prior, head of the Middle East for EC Harris, says: “We are discussing deals that would mean we will be paid in six months’ time – or half of what we’re owed in three months and the rest in six.”

Other companies are understood to have been forced to accept payment in the forms of stakes in a development. George Grant, operations director for infrastructure at M&E specialist Drake & Scull, says: “We have no experience of taking equity instead of cash but we would consider it. Our view is we want to work with the clients if it means that work goes ahead.”

“We are doing a lot of reverse briefing of designers. We’re asking them to cut their fees by up to half and to change the materials specified”

Evan Anderson, Blair Anderson

Others are more wary. Anderson has refused payment in shares: “They offer you 1% of a development that you have had no involvement on and no idea how it works. If you invest in something you want to do detailed research on it.”

Meanwhile, the old model of developers paying contractors with money from sales of units in buildings before it has been completed is a thing of the past. Projects launched on this model are being refinanced. Under the new deals institutional investors are brought in and contractors are forced to accept deferred payments.

Anderson says: “The previous model based on off-plan sales is no longer viable, so total financing is being done by investment, and selling is happening when the building is under construction.”

As a result, development is less gung-ho, he adds, which in turn means people are earning lower fees over a longer period. Developments are being built in phases. “Before, a developer would build three high-rises at once; now they are building them one by one. They build a tower, sell it, then use the proceeds to build the next one.”

Such is the state of the market that those who are actually getting paid do not want to admit it. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the head of a British architect’s Dubai office said: “I would rather you didn’t put my name in your article because if other people working for my client find out that I’ve been paid, they’ll be demanding that the client pays them too, and then I’ll have to answer to the client.”

He says at the moment you have the best chance of being paid if you are needed to help with the process of putting a project on hold. “If you are not essential – that is, if you are not putting remedial works in place so the client can put work on hold – you will not get paid.”

Will developers ever pay?

The gravest concern of all is caused by rumours that some developers are about to go bust. Despite their government links, there is no guarantee the state will step in to save these firms. A source at a project manager in Dubai says: “It’s impossible to say whether the government will pay developers’ debts or not. State sponsorship is relatively loose here. Nobody knows whether certain developers are going to be mothballed, merged or go bust.”

Drake & Scull’s Grant, a Middle East veteran, says: “There’s no doubt some clients have run out of money and will disappear. Not the big names though, they need to renegotiate their finance deals but they will carry on.”

He may be right, but the question of when they will pay is still causing UK firms to fret. Emaar, to take one developer, has just had its debt downgraded by Standard & Poor, the ratings agency, from –A to BBB+. It made a loss of 1.6bn dirhams (£304m) in the last quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the government has warned that the economy may shrink in the second half of 2009.

Most developers are declining to comment on the payment issue, including Nakheel. A spokesperson from developer Limitless did speak to us and insisted that all creditors would be paid. She said: “We’re renegotiating some payment plans, but not all, as part of our overall response to the global situation.”

An Emaar spokesperson also sent the following statement: “Payments for contractors and consultants are based on a credit cycle and set deliverables agreed with them. All payments that meet the criteria have been honoured and will continue to be cleared, in line with our agreements.”

But for those still waiting to be paid and suffering, what recourse is there? Another source says: “Historically, if you’re not getting paid here, you don’t rock the boat; the last thing you do is resort to litigation. But now people are getting highly emotional. If you’re working on a huge project and you recruited a huge team to do it, and you’re owed millions, well maybe it is time to sue.”

He adds that he expects to see “some big disputes in the next three months”, which is perhaps ironic considering that Dubai is aiming to become a regional dispute resolution centre. Prior is among those who admit that “litigation is an option we have our eye on”. It’s a statement that would have been unthinkable in Dubai a year ago.

As the legal cases loom (see box, previous page), it’s clear that relations between clients and project teams are strained to the limit. The head of another UK consultancy, who asked not be named, revealed a conversation he had with a senior emirati working for a big developer. “I said to him, if I don’t get my money, I will sue. He said, you will never work in Dubai again. I said, why would I want to?”


Disputes in Dubai
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Dubai’s legal system is facing a sudden rush of disputes, and there are doubts about how well it is going to handle them. The first problem is the absence of adjudication. Paul Taylor, a partner at lawyer HBJ Gateley Wareing, says: “Unlike in the UK, there is no quick fix in Dubai. Here, arbitration and litigation, are the only ways to get your money.” Even worse, arbitration in Dubai takes up to two years – even longer than in the UK.

Another problem is certification. Of course, getting an engineer’s certificate proving you have done the work and are therefore entitled to be paid is an important piece of ammunition in the fight for your fee. However, in Dubai, Taylor says many contracts include a clause saying that an engineer cannot approve a piece of work without the client’s sign off. “These clauses are being disputed, but it’s still tough.”

People are looking at alternative methods of resolving disputes. Next month a “mediation centre” is being set up that will fast-track dispute resolution through an independent party. Taylor says it is a mid step between amicable settlement and arbitration and could resolve a dispute in two or three weeks. The problem, though, is that it will only work if both parties voluntarily accept the verdict.

Most projects are on the FIDIC contract. The 1999 version contains a clause that allows the use of a dispute resolution board, which can take six to 12 weeks. Earlier versions of the contract do not tend to offer this option.

Even if you do resolve a dispute to your satisfaction, then you have the problem of enforcing the decision. Taylor recommends a “more commercial” way of tackling a dispute. “Knock on the client’s door and try to explain your difficulties face to face. And get your local sponsor to act as an intermediary.” As a last resort, you can threaten to terminate the work you’re doing for the client – an approach that will only work if the project is continuing.

I wonder if there's anything we can do to help those children being suspended..???






rch

And the above story is not some opinion piece by Greer or Jenkins. These are cold hard facts. Its truly an ugly situation out there. Some of the world's biggest contractors and consultants will go out of business (at least their ME operations). I know one case already

Palm monorail launch date delayed
by Tom ArnoldThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Thursday, 02 April 2009

RAIL DELAY: The Palm Monorail, originally slated to open in April, will now start operations later in 2009.Nakheel has delayed the opening of its $381 million Palm Monorail from its original date of April to later this year, it emerged on Thursday.

The monorail, which runs along the Palm Jumeirah, completed live testing on schedule and would shortly receive its operating certificate from the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), a spokesman for the developer told Arabian Business.

“We are currently working with all providers to ensure amenities and facilities related to Palm Monorail are completed in line with the opening of the monorail which is scheduled for later this year,” the spokesman added in an email.

K-Dog wrote: “We are doing a lot of reverse briefing of designers. We’re asking them to cut their fees by up to half and to change the materials they’re specifying to bring down costs by about 30%.”

If anyone thought that build quality was bad here, you ain't seen nothing yet.

gtmash wrote:

K-Dog wrote: “We are doing a lot of reverse briefing of designers. We’re asking them to cut their fees by up to half and to change the materials they’re specifying to bring down costs by about 30%.”

If anyone thought that build quality was bad here, you ain't seen nothing yet.

High rise mud huts??

And what's that hole in the ground? My toilet!?!?!?!

It's totally unfair to penalise the children, it's not their fault! Plus the school fees are ridiculous at the best of times!

Unfortunately the children suffer the fallout of the parents failure to pay the school fees, but school fees should be as much a priority as paying rent. When you can't do both, then it is time to think about returning to their country. In the case of the man whose school fees were paid directly from the employer and the check bounced, that is totally out of his hands but it sure is a sign of where his company is heading.

I am sure that some of these parents think it is more important to hold onto the housemaid that put that money towards schooling.

Thanks for sharing K-Dog. Interesting articles.

I found another one that says something about all projects on hold;

Dubai developer delays Arabian Canal and cuts jobs

2 April, 2009
By Roxane McMeeken

Limitless slashes 7% of workforce in bid to save cash in struggling Middle East market

Dubai developer Limitless delayed a key contract on its $60bn Arabian Canal project and cut 7% of its workforce due to the global downturn. The firm had invited tenders for phase two of the giant project but has told bidders the selection process is on hold. It said phase 1 of the project was continuing.

The second phase involved excavating around 300 million cubic metres of earth along an 8.5km stretch of the Canal’s route. In September 2008 Abu Dhabi-based Tristar won phase one of the scheme, which involved excavating over 200 million cubic metres.

Limitless said in a statement: “We have made a difficult but necessary decision in response to current market conditions. As a responsible developer, we must adjust to and work around the situation by prioritising our investments, reviewing the pace of our developments... Unfortunately, this means taking the painful step of laying off a small proportion of staff.”

The 38 redundancies follow a wave of lay offs in Dubai’s construction and property industry since November. At least 50% of projects in Dubai are on hold.
Besides the $11bn 75km canal, Limitless is master planning a $50bn, 14,000ha waterfront city for 2.5m people along the 30km inland stretch of the waterway.

Limitless added. “Downturns do not last forever. We remain committed to our projects and optimistic about the long term outlook for the real estate sector. Most of our developments are long term, large-scale projects, constructed over eight years, on average, so we can adjust the pace of development taking into account market conditions, which will inevitably fluctuate in that time.”

Interesting posts - thanks kdog

It's a sad, sad state of education! But the fault inherently lies with the system! It's very much a fee based system for expats! N if u can't afford to pay ur fees, then it causes a ripple effect which ultimately affects the educational institutions who have have service taxes, n other fees to pay!

The only solution to this problem, in my opinion, is for individual embassies to step in, identify community schools, n den encourage the financially weaker members of their community to enroll their kids in those schools, such that during tough times, wen parents struggle to pay fees, the embassy can step in with some assistance, and then the family can eventually repay the respective government in the form of taxes, or through ny other means acceptabe!

schools here are bunch of THIEVES. same goes for unis. they deserve what they are getting. bunch of thieves.

It's rather unfortunate that the children get caught up in a problem caused by their Parents, however what can be done here in a world that relies solely on cash being paid.

rudeboy wrote:schools here are bunch of THIEVES. same goes for unis. they deserve what they are getting. bunch of thieves.

Dude u speaking way too soon.....educational institutions are not even close to the point where they are in any financial trouble, n if u observe the private educations system in the UAE, u'll notice that these operators(varkey etc) are nutin more than cartels! Even if half these private schools have to close down, the management really won't be affected as they have made enough profits. Unfortunately it's those seeking a decent education who are worst affected!
But yea they are a bunch of thieves!

Not surprising at all to hear that students will be barred from attending school unless the fees are paid. We aren't talking a public education system here...

Misery Called Life wrote:It's a sad, sad state of education! But the fault inherently lies with the system! It's very much a fee based system for expats! N if u can't afford to pay ur fees, then it causes a ripple effect which ultimately affects the educational institutions who have have service taxes, n other fees to pay!

The only solution to this problem, in my opinion, is for individual embassies to step in, identify community schools, n den encourage the financially weaker members of their community to enroll their kids in those schools, such that during tough times, wen parents struggle to pay fees, the embassy can step in with some assistance, and then the family can eventually repay the respective government in the form of taxes, or through ny other means acceptabe!

And you think it's easy relocating 500 plus students from one school to another. and what is a community school???

My guess is many parents can afford to pay but are hoping to save as much before they flee...

Misery Called Life wrote:It's a sad, sad state of education! But the fault inherently lies with the system! It's very much a fee based system for expats! N if u can't afford to pay ur fees, then it causes a ripple effect which ultimately affects the educational institutions who have have service taxes, n other fees to pay!

The only solution to this problem, in my opinion, is for individual embassies to step in, identify community schools, n den encourage the financially weaker members of their community to enroll their kids in those schools, such that during tough times, wen parents struggle to pay fees, the embassy can step in with some assistance, and then the family can eventually repay the respective government in the form of taxes, or through ny other means acceptabe!

First, it is not the system that is to fault. If you have children or plan on having children while residing in Dubai expats need to do their homework regarding education and the bottom line is you have to pay for it. Free education is only provided to Emiratis.

As for suggesting that embassies step in - You need to understand what the purpose of an embassy is. For one thing it is NOT, it does not exist to sort out the financial and/or school problems of expats. It is not there to get involved with divorces (as some boob suggested regarding the Marnie Pearce situation). It does not get involved with people who violate the laws of the land that they are residing in.

Maybe some of those who can't afford to pay the school should consider letting the housemaid go and use that money towards the school fees.

Snow wrote:and what is a community school???

By community schools, I was referring to a school which would probably be approved/affiliated by the ministry of education in the home country! Example:-Canadians would know which educational institutions primary/secondry, are affiliated to their Education Ministry. I'm sure schools would love such accreditations! The benifit for Canadian citizens being added educational security. So, if the Canadian school going community in the UAE is large enough then the government should step in....The benefits from such a system are numerous!

Bora Bora wrote:As for suggesting that embassies step in - You need to understand what the purpose of an embassy is. For one thing it is NOT, it does not exist to sort out the financial and/or school problems of expats.

Thats's a rather old fashioned outlook......We live in globalized times and governments should bear the additional responsibilities of looking out for their kin, wherevr they r!
Besides wats wrong if an embassy has a policy for education....Especially if there are thousand n thousands of it's citizens, living in that country?

Besides with the rather bleak economic outlook for Dubai, one can only see this problem aggravating....N it's absolutely wrong that children should suffer as a consequence!

Misery Called Life wrote:

Snow wrote:and what is a community school???

By community schools, I was referring to a school which would probably be approved/affiliated by the ministry of education in the home country! Example:-Canadians would know which educational institutions primary/secondry, are affiliated to their Education Ministry. I'm sure schools would love such accreditations! The benifit for Canadian citizens being added educational security. So, if the Canadian school going community in the UAE is large enough then the government should step in....The benefits from such a system are numerous!

Bora Bora wrote:As for suggesting that embassies step in - You need to understand what the purpose of an embassy is. For one thing it is NOT, it does not exist to sort out the financial and/or school problems of expats.

Thats's a rather old fashioned outlook......We live in globalized times and governments should bear the additional responsibilities of looking out for their kin, wherevr they r!
Besides wats wrong if an embassy has a policy for education....Especially if there are thousand n thousands of it's citizens, living in that country?

Besides with the rather bleak economic outlook for Dubai, one can only see this problem aggravating....N it's absolutely wrong that children should suffer as a consequence!

You need to do research on what the purpose of an embassy is. The only time an embassy is going to get involved in the welfare of their "kin" (your reference) is when there is a clear and present danger in the country, or there was some sort of catastrophe in the country they are residing in, and they need to be evacuated. They are there also to help maintain good relations with the government of the host country, with paperwork, and to issue visas to those individuals who require one to travel to the country they represent.

The outlook is realistic. Governments should not be burdened with finding a solution to bail out people who run into financial problems and are not able to pay for schooling, which is the problem of the individual.

Bottom line, if you can't afford to pay for schooling either stay in your home country where the schooling is probably free, or send the child/ren back to stay with family, or go somewhere else where it is free.

^^ Fair enough! U r totally right........
But I'm tryin to look at things a lil differently here, n i dnt see why it's such a big deal for every country to have some association with educational institutions........It'd really benefit communities big time!
Look at it this way, the Roman Catholic Church has schools in Dubai n Abu-Dhabi(not sure bout other emirates), it's not essentially the business of the church to provide education, but they do a darn good job of it ( in the UAE)! Like wise countries maintain trade centers and other platforms for trade, in many countries, which falls under the oversight of the embassy!
Y is it so far fetched to entertain the idea of embassies mainatining some kind of academic affiliatios, strictly for primary and secondry schools!

But u kno community schools actually do exist...
for eg:- The American Community School _ Abu-Dhabi
The British School- Al Khubairat etc

Conclusion to debate- Parents need to be prudent wen it comes to children's educations. If u can't afford the fees, then no point sending ur child to a higher end school, n then cryin foul when u can't afford the fees! Just keep it simple and send ur child to of of ur community schools!

And yes Bora Bora U were right all along!

My outburst was directed at the followin story!
http://www.gulfnews.com/Nation/Education/10298069.html

N such incidents must definately not occur again, in any school!

[quote="Misery Called Life Y is it so far fetched to entertain the idea of embassies mainatining some kind of academic affiliatios, strictly for primary and secondry schools![/quote]

Sounds real good to me. With the hugs populations from some countries here in Dubai, it’s a valid suggestion. And I guess people would pay for education if it was possible.

I’m sorry Bora Bora, but your attitude to parents is wrong. Most parents won’t stop at anything to get the best for their kids. But they are not ready to give their last Dirham to exorbitant schools or other businesses in UAE, such as Etisalat, landlords or retail.

This mentality from EVRY business requiring people to pay WHAT YOU HAVE and not WHAT IT COST is killing this country. On top of that is the monopoly system where a few own everything (being schools, import rights and so on) and set the price. This issue was discussed in the latest Arab business summit which required this praxis to be stopped. It’s damaging to the Arab economy.

Where on earth the government GIVES the business the right to increase prices 15% per year?????? Just because they are doing what they are supposed to do?????

And what about creating inflation?

Bezor has some very valid points here. But the result of that is a leveraged credit crunch that is widely visible in Dubai and surroundings.

The problems with UAE inflation, and especially in relation with the dollar peg (phoney money policy, if you know what I mean ) the prices of goods in the UAE will only rise in the future, as soon as the economy picks up again (globally). Those prices hikes go way faster than your payroll rise, and will never track full UAE dirham + US dollar inflation combined.

Its one of the reasons, it is not desirable to work for Dirhams in the future. If you anticipate well on economic developments like I just described in-short, you know the UAE is not the place to work to get rich quick, unless you have a (foreign) employer that pays a full expat package.

Future talk though.

Yea, the Dhiram-Dollar Peg needs to be relooked! But unfortunately Kuwait who depegged isn't faring to well on the inflation front either!
I guess thats y the Central Bank is now waiting for a GCC currency...the argument being that it's too risky for a small country like UAE to act alone!

Misery Called Life wrote:Yea, the Dhiram-Dollar Peg needs to be relooked! But unfortunately Kuwait who depegged isn't faring to well on the inflation front either!
I guess thats y the Central Bank is now waiting for a GCC currency...the argument being that it's too risky for a small country like UAE to act alone!

I doubt they will look at this any day soon, it's been in place for decades now.

Have the increases really gone down to 15%. For a couple of years now I thought I heard people complaining about the schools raising fees by over 40% per year - at least wasn't the case in 2007 or 2008?

I some recent news stories, there were some schools who wanted to make 90% increases! Where on earth do they expect people to get the money from.

Anyway you wait till the end of this school year and see how many people disappear overnight.

Chocoholic wrote:I some recent news stories, there were some schools who wanted to make 90% increases! Where on earth do they expect people to get the money from.

Anyway you wait till the end of this school year and see how many people disappear overnight.

Looks like your on the same watch as me.

Misery Called Life wrote:^^ Fair enough! U r totally right........
But I'm tryin to look at things a lil differently here, n i dnt see why it's such a big deal for every country to have some association with educational institutions........It'd really benefit communities big time!
Look at it this way, the Roman Catholic Church has schools in Dubai n Abu-Dhabi(not sure bout other emirates), it's not essentially the business of the church to provide education, but they do a darn good job of it ( in the UAE)! Like wise countries maintain trade centers and other platforms for trade, in many countries, which falls under the oversight of the embassy!
Y is it so far fetched to entertain the idea of embassies mainatining some kind of academic affiliatios, strictly for primary and secondry schools!

The Roman Catholic Church charges school fees - anywhere in the world. The church doesn't give anything away for free.

Emiratis are the only people who are entitled to a free education. All expats have to pay for it.

There are US universities with affiliations here and they charge as well. Do you think they are going to bring the same educational standards and professors here and give it away? The only educational institutions that would be able to work under an embassy would be government owned. Privately owned educational institutes are not going to empower embassies with a say as to how the institute has to be run.