DUBAI // Increases in school fees should be tied to performance instead of economic factors, the head of Dubai's school authority has indicated, because the high cost of rents for schools and teacher accommodations has fallen significantly.
"What we are saying is that decision ought to be revised because the climate has changed," said Dr Abdulla al Karam, the director general of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). "It has to be revised on a federal level, because we don't want to be inconsistent."
Dr al Karam said his agency was in talks with the Ministry of Education about fee caps and expected a decision before April, when Indian and Pakistani schools start the new academic year.
Dr Maryam al Ali, the director of the ministry's commission for private schools, confirmed that federal fee caps were under review. Under the present caps schools cannot increase fees by more than 30 per cent over three years.
Last year the KHDA, with permission from the ministry, tied school fees to performance on Dubai school inspections. Dr al Karam said schools had been permitted double digit increases for the past few years to compensate for steep increases in rent and inflation in general. But, he added, "the reasons that existed in the past, they don't exist anymore". The double-digit annual increases of the past few years, he said, were justified by "inflation in double digits and rent increases in double digits". Now, Dr al Karam suggested, schools should increase their fees only to improve their educational performance.
A new rent index is being developed by the KHDA and the Real Estate Regulatory Authority in Dubai, to cap the amount that landlords can charge schools.
Dr George Robinson, the superintendent of the American Community School in Abu Dhabi, said that while he thought there was no need for double digit increases, the situation in Dubai was not the same as in the capital. "Rents haven't dropped in Abu Dhabi," he said.
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NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 2
(Martial 30', McTominay 90 6')
Manchester City 0
Afghanistan squad
Gulbadin Naib (captain), Mohammad Shahzad (wicketkeeper), Noor Ali Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmat Shah, Asghar Afghan, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Najibullah Zadran, Samiullah Shinwari, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Dawlat Zadran, Aftab Alam, Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.
Anghami
Started: December 2011
Co-founders: Elie Habib, Eddy Maroun
Based: Beirut and Dubai
Sector: Entertainment
Size: 85 employees
Stage: Series C
Investors: MEVP, du, Mobily, MBC, Samena Capital
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Straightforward ways to reduce sugar in your family's diet
- Ban fruit juice and sodas
- Eat a hearty breakfast that contains fats and wholegrains, such as peanut butter on multigrain toast or full-fat plain yoghurt with whole fruit and nuts, to avoid the need for a 10am snack
- Give young children plain yoghurt with whole fruits mashed into it
- Reduce the number of cakes, biscuits and sweets. Reserve them for a treat
- Don’t eat dessert every day
- Make your own smoothies. Always use the whole fruit to maintain the benefit of its fibre content and don’t add any sweeteners
- Always go for natural whole foods over processed, packaged foods. Ask yourself would your grandmother have eaten it?
- Read food labels if you really do feel the need to buy processed food
- Eat everything in moderation
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A