New Fee Woes For Pakistani Schools

The Pakistan Association of Dubai (PAD) announced today that is has paid over AED 1 million towards unpaid school fees already this year.

The group says it is currently assisting 41 children with school fees, and has another 54 applications pending.

A spokesperson for PAD told the National that this is double the amount spent by the group last year on defaulted fees.

Dr Faisel Ikram, secretary general at PAD told the National, “we have received another 54 applications, which will cost about Dh175,000.”

The English Language School in Oud Metha, has 25 pupils in need of help from the association.

School accountant Mohammed Bajwa said, “this year has been quite shocking… even families who never missed any fees for years have not been able to pay a penny this year.”

“In 12 years in the school, this is the first time I have seen such a large number of fee defaulters," he said.

“All these students belong to middle or low-income families whose fathers have either lost their jobs or are facing other financial crunch in their businesses," he said.

Some families are choosing to send their children back to Pakistan while others are more worryingly, have simply stopped sending their children to school.

Accountant Siddique M at the Pakistan Education Academy said, “there are many who have stopped coming to school without any notice.”

“We are working to maintain the exact statistics… it is crucial to know the depth of the problem in order to find the long-term solutions,” said Siddique.

“Meanwhile, we will continue to do our best to support families so that the education of these children should not be interrupted."