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School defers hike in fees to help parents

SHARJAH - The current fee hike in various private schools in the country may have forced parents to believe that school managements are being unjustifiable, but the Varkey Group's Our Own English High School(OOEHS), Sharjah, empathising with the parents, has deferred raising of tuition fees by 20 per cent to May, 2003.

Dr Farooq Wasil, the school principal said that the approval for fee hike was received from the Ministry of Education and Youth sometime early this year. But, the school has decided to implement the fee hike from next month (May) to give parents enough time to prepare for the raise.

According to the principal, "the fee hike was imminent due to escalating operational costs, however, we made sure that parents were given enough notice on the fee hike decision." The raise has not deterred the number of new students from joining the school in the new academic year, Dr Wasil said, pointing out to a significant increase in intake of fresh students over last year.

The school which follows the New Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus, begins its new academic year on April 6 and has registered around 1,100 new intakes this year.

"We have exceeded our budgeted front in terms of the student numbers this year and yet have a big waiting list of fresh applicants," he explained, adding, the existing school infrastructure has been upgraded to accomodate the increasing number of fresh students which have joined at all class levels. Dr Wasil also noted that the school has revised the salary scales of its teachers, according to the ministry requirements.

"All our teachers, will, from April 1, receive Dh2,000 basic salary or more, according to their grades . But, one thing is clear, that no teacher will receive less than the basic salary stipulated by the ministry," the princiapl said. The OOEHS, Sharjah is one of the 18 schools of the Varkey Group catering to a large contingent of Indian students from Sharjah and other Northern emirates.

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