Hefty tuition fee raises concern

Parents have welcomed the KHDA’s new inclusive education policy announcement; however, they remain worried about the hefty costs of education for people of determination.

An American expat parent, April McCabe, who has autistic son, said high tuition fees is one of the main reasons her son is not currently enrolled at a mainstream school. McCabe and other parents voiced their concerns over the fee structure once people of determination are accepted into mainstream schools.

“Not only would we have to pay the tuition fees, we would have to pay for a learning support assistant which would cost an additional Dh40,000 to Dh70,000 on top of tuition,” McCabe said.

Another parent, Abeer Ismail, whose son has Down syndrome, is also worried about the potentially high tuition. “Schools usually charge parents of determined kids the double, plus asking for a shadow teacher, which also adds to the total cost,” she said. “We hope that the new inclusion policy will treat determined kids equal to the other kids in all aspects, including the fees.”

Maryna van der Marwe’s son has cerebral palsy. She said her family has “suffered tremendously” because of high therapy costs.

One of the policies listed in KHDA’s policy framework states that schools must be able to ensure that the cost to families for required services, based on a student’s disability, are “reasonable and reflect good value for money indicated by efficiency of delivery and impact upon student outcomes”.

The policy also states that on “rare occasions” — where students who experience complex and severe levels of special educational needs and disability require high levels of therapeutic or specialist provision within their educational programmes — educational institutions or the special needs centre must ensure that the additional fees to parents “represent the actual cost of the services” for the sake of transparency.