School fees
By beodonnell •
Hi everyone. I am moving to Doha with my young family later in the year. My employer is offering 15,000QR per child for grades 1-6 as an education allowance. From what I can find online, this doesn't seem to be enough to even half cover fees at any of the international schools. Is 30,000 to 40,000 the going rate?
All help appreciated.
The high cost of school fees is only a problem once you have managed to find places for your children. Some schools in Doha will not even give you places on the waiting list. As well as the school fees, there are also other charges.
Recently a friend of mine managed to get a place at DESS for her son. She only had to wait two years, during which time she repeatedly telephoned the school, e-mailed them and visited the school in person.
15k per child will cover about 1/3 on average for one of the decent English international schools. If you have an excellent salary and benefits otherwise (and only one or two children), that's fine. But if the company is slighting you on education, I would look very closely at the value of the other benefits. Many companies pay the full cost for Western expats or an agreed percentage. Some even hold places at schools, so as to guarantee places for employees' children.
joe90--DESS raised its fees for next year to about 33k, plus there are the new student enrollment fees. But yes, DESS is excellent, and with an obscenely long waiting list!
Inflation currently at 1.10%
http://www.indexmundi.com/qatar/inflation_rate_(consumer_prices).html
(By the way, I doubt these figures)
Have you looked at DESS? The fees are around 26k and the standard of teaching is quite good too.
thanks qatarkiwi, is inflation a big problem in general at the moment?
u r still lucky.. many companies don't even offer that.
Don't let that re-consider your plans to move in Qatar.
Sadly so. 15k seems to be the going rate for most education allowances but with rampant inflation it isn't able to keep up. Most govt. based organisations have been waiting for publication of the new financial years' HR policy which should hopefully go someway to address this as there has been quite a lot of complaints regarding the inequity.
As for rates, depends on the school. 15k can be for a term as well for some schools apparently.
Welcome to Doha, don't let that put you off, you are getting her just in time for Summer. Try and delay until after August when beginning to cool down once again.