How Much UAE Parents Really Spend on School...

What's most striking about the results to our question "How much of your household income goes on education spending?" in the WSA School Survey is that the figures vary so widely.

For the vast majority of parents in the UAE, education is a major expense however, with close to one in 5 families spending more than 30% of their monthly household budget on school fees. The most common answer from respondents is between 11% and 15% of their combined household incomes.

There are of course several factors that determine the exact percentage, only some of which come into this survey.

The first that does is the curriculum of the school. It makes a big difference.

There is a significantly higher percentage of parents of children going to Indian curriculum schools who spend less than 5% of their household incomes (24%) than parents sending their children to IB (11%), British (12%) or American (13%) based schools.

Indian curriculum schools are, of course, significantly cheaper than IB or British schools largely because they cater to an audience with much wider income differentials.

Indian schools do not and possibly cannot charge the same rates as their peers because they also serve a larger population of families with considerably lower disposable income.

Fortunate middle class Indian families therefore on a good income will be considerably better off than a parent earning similar incomes sending their children to British, American or International curriculum based schools.

If you take the next price range - between 5% and 10% - Indian curriculum families emerge even further ahead. 18% of Indian curriculum based families pay this level of fees, as opposed to 6% of American curricula families, 13% of British curricula families and 18% of IB based families.

Combined the results look like this for families spending 10% or less of their household income on education:

Indian curriculum schools: 42%
IB curriculum schools: 28%
British curriculum schools:25%
American curriculum schools: 19%

Percentage of spend naturally increases the more children a family has, but the findings show not markedly so.

One reason for this may be that many families who have two or more children either do not send them to school in the UAE, have made sure their company pays before committing to a move to the UAE, or have looked at lower cost options.

Finally parents in Abu Dhabi are paying more than parents in other emirates. Over 46% of parents in the capital pay 21% or more of their household income on education, as opposed to 36% of households in Dubai.