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No additional fee for year-end graduation ceremony: SEZ

The Sharjah Education Zone (SEZ) has termed it illegal for schools to collect any additional fee from students’ parents under the pretext of holding year-end graduation ceremony, going on a school trip or any other activities conducted by schools.

As the academic year-end approaches and government and private schools prepare to hold the graduation ceremonies, the SEZ by distributing circular renews its firm warning calling on schools not to levy or collect any additional fee from students for extra activities.

SEZ clarified in a circular that the extracurricular activities that schools render to its students should be free of charge.

Saeed Musabeh Al Kabi, Director of the SEZ, said that schools willing to hold the academic year-end graduation ceremonies must abide by a bunch of rules. The should first and foremost write an application asking to hold a graduation ceremony and forward it to the SEZ management 20 days prior to the ceremony, and that the application should state the sponsoring body so as to obtain the beforehand approval to hold the ceremony.

The circular emphasised that schools must adhere to the executive bylaw No (52) which bans collection of any additional school fee unstated in the bylaw, or collecting such fee without obtaining an approval in advance from the ministry of education.

Al Kabi added that the SEZ always warns against collecting additional fee some schools try to impose on students, clarifying that most schools are law-abiding.

However, he said the education zone sometime receives comments from students’ parents complaining that schools and kindergartens charge them fees for the year-end graduation ceremony, which could lead to some students missing the chance to participate in such academic ceremonial occasion.

news@khaleejtimes.com