38 private schools in Qatar given permission to hike fees in new academic year

It is official. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has released a list of 38 private schools and nurseries in the country that will raise their tuition fees in the 2017-18 academic year.

Last month, reports had come out that as many as 120 educational institutions had asked for a fee hike, but only around 30% have been given permission to go ahead with it.

The ministry has given approval for tuition fee hike ranging from 1% to 15%. The higher percentage applies only to nurseries with an existing fee range between QR5,000 and QR6,000.

The Filipino International School, SEK International, MES Indian School, the Finnish school and Doha College (West Bay) are some of the institutions that got approval for fee increase this year. This was mentioned in a list published by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (Arabic Link).

Hamad Al Ghali, Director of Private Schools Licensing Administration, said that 70% of the applications by private schools were rejected.

 “The ministry starts receiving applications from private schools for increasing tuition fees in December, every year. Given the parents' concerns with the issue of augmented tuition fees, the applications were carefully reviewed individually depending on each school's circumstances and financial situation,” Qatar Tribune reported the top official as saying.

The applications were reviewed by the ministry's high-level evaluation committees and approved by the Minister of Education.

“89 applications were rejected for reasons such as ‘incomplete financial reports’ and ‘exceeding 20% accommodation capacity’,” he added.