Adec to offer cheap land in Abu Dhabi to build new schools

The schools regulator is hoping government incentives will help encourage private investors to build schools that are urgently needed.

ABU DHABI // Education chiefs are offering cheap land and fast-track operating licences to encourage private companies to build desperately needed new schools.

The number of schoolchildren in Abu Dhabi is growing by 5 per cent a year, which means nearly 70,000 more school places will be required by 2020.

“We have a big demand here in Abu Dhabi,” Tareq Al Ameri of Adec, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, said at an investors’ forum in the capital on Tuesday.

“Therefore, we are expecting support from the private sector to establish new schools to overcome the shortage in the number of schools.”

Adec offers land to investors to build new schools at about Dh1 a square metre. Commercial land in Abu Dhabi would normally cost up to Dh2,000 a square metre.

The council also offers new private schools the opportunity to use former state school buildings. It has also eased the licence application process.

However, private education companies say they are deterred by Adec’s control of school fees.

Gene Eidelman, president of Mosaica Education, said: “It takes three years to build the school. Adec approves the fees when the application is submitted. Three years later, especially now with housing costs going up, you’re going to be facing different circumstances.

“Instead of controlling the fees, more effort needs to be done to incentivise people to create schools. If you have more schools … if you give more choices, then you don’t need to worry about controlling the fees. If the supply increases, the market will control the tuition fees.

“What’s happening now is Adec controls tuition fees and is not doing enough to increase the supply.”

There are 341,643 schoolchildren in Abu Dhabi, of whom 215,034 attend one of the 185 private schools in the capital, Al Ain and Al Gharbia. Of those, 75 per cent are expatriate and 25 per cent Emirati. The remaining pupils, about 126,000, are mostly UAE nationals who go to the 254 public schools. Last year, private schools in the capital collected Dh2.9 billion in tuition fees.

By 2020, the number of children who require a private school place is projected to reach 283,798.

On Tuesday was an opportunity for Adec to announce incentives to persuade some of the 350 school operators, business owners and bankers at the forum to invest in education.

“These include the allocation of land plots and issuance of licences for new private schools that meet the need for certain curricula to cater for various income levels in the emirate as per Adec regulations and standards,” said Hamad Al Dhaheri, executive director of Adec’s private school quality assurance.

Adec has already allocated 49 plots of land to investors. Three will be used to build schools to accommodate 8,000 pupils: one American and one British curriculum school in Khalifa City A and a Ministry of Education curriculum school in Al Falah. The schools should be ready to open for the 2016-17 academic year.