Children shouldn’t be dragged into school fees dispute

It is hardly the fault of the children that their parents have not paid their school fees, writes Ayesha Almazroui

A woman called a Sharjah radio station last week complaining that her daughter had been detained in a school classroom because of unpaid fees.

The phone call revealed that there were more pupils in the same situation. As The National reported last week, a Sharjah private school detained 15 of its pupils in a classroom on Monday and refused to allow the children to leave until their parents had paid all late fees.

The principal told the media that the school had to do something to push parents to pay their fees after constant reminders and that what the school had done was the “equivalent of giving pupils a one-day suspension”, which is allowed under the law.

Sharjah Educational Zone conducted a two-day investigation into the incident and issued a warning to the school (and all private schools in Sharjah) not to take action against non-paying parents outside the rules permitted by the Ministry of Education.

This incident sheds light on a larger issue in the UAE that requires attention. I’ve contacted local education authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and they told me that parents have been known to delay payments for weeks, months or sometimes even years.

Another mother told The National that her son's school banned pupils from getting onto the school bus unless parents had paid outstanding fees. Another said that her 10-year-old son told her that his school sent its employees to classrooms to read out loud the names of pupils and ask them to either pay or stop coming to school.

While these actions are morally wrong, particularly because any late payment is not the fault of the child, private schools are driven by profits and have their own expenses to pay: rent, salaries and running costs.

Measures permitted by law – including withholding results, refraining from handing over official documents for pupils to move schools and temporarily suspending them after at least three warnings to their parents – will not be effective in many cases. Sometimes parents with low income simply cannot pay. So what can be done to help those families?

Some UAE writers and academics called for some sort of basic education for children of low-income families in the UAE.

Dhabiya Khamis, an Emirati author and translator, suggested that the Government provide free education for poor long-term residents in the UAE since the state has consented to their presence. She referred to Sheikh Zayed’s words when he emphasised, on many occasions, the importance of building human resources and how they should be applied to non-citizen residents and their children.

“In a rich country like the UAE, education should be the responsibility of the state and not a domain for private investments aimed for money at the expense of everything else,” she said.

On the other hand, many would argue that it’s not the Government’s duty to provide free services for non-citizens.

If we compare the UAE to Finland, which provides free education for all residents (not just Finnish citizens), we will find a major difference: the number of foreign nationals in Finland is relatively small – less than two per cent of the entire population – unlike the UAE where the majority of the population comprise foreigners.

However, education authorities can play a major role in addressing the issue by investing in affordable private schools designed to serve low-income communities across the country.

Although local education authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai have made efforts to bring some schools to the country, demands are still high in these two emirates and the rest of the UAE. More investment should be made in this area to ensure equal opportunity for all.

Another solution could be developed by the General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments, by using “waqf” and “zakat” generated profits to build community schools or facilitate the process in coordination with charity organisations that already build schools in poor countries.

The incident of the detained students should not be repeated. It should be stopped not only by warning schools, but by addressing the root causes of the issue. Education is not only a basic human right, it’s also the first step in fighting poverty.

On Twitter: @AyeshaAlmazroui