Several private schools in Qatar have sought permission to raise their fees from the next academic session which begins in September, but the Ministry of Education is yet to take a decision on the requests, a senior official of the Department of Private Education said. All the private and community schools are required to obtain prior permission from the Department before imposing any hike in their fees. Most of these schools had revised their fees over the past two years, citing a rise in operational costs due to the inflation in the country. Recently, some schools had cited the recession as a reason to hike the fees and it is expected that more schools would follow suit. “We have received requests from some private schools seeking permission to raise their fees. However, we have not so far granted permission to any of these schools,” Hamad Ali Al Sulaiti, director of the Private Education Department told The Peninsula yesterday. He said a special committee at the Ministry will decide on the requests. Asked if the Department would favourably consider some of the requests, Al Sulaiti said, “I can not say anything at this moment since the decision has to be taken by the committee.” Asked if there were plans to impose a maximum ceiling on fee hike, Al Sulaiti said this issue will also be decided by the committee. When pointed out that some Indian schools had already raised their fees with effect from April this year, Al Sulaiti said, “The academic year in Qatar begins in September, but there are schools following a different academic calendar, depending on the nature of their curriculum. Those who have already raised their fees must have taken permission from the Department in advance.” http://thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local%5FNews&subsection=Qatar+News&month=June2009&file=Local_News2009060861134.xml

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