Tuesday 23 / April / 2024
Muscat: Schools attended by expatriate communities in Oman have announced reductions in fees for their students, to lessen on families the impact of COVID-19.
The Indian and Pakistani schools in the Sultanate have offered reductions in fees, while Bangladesh schools in Oman are looking at ways to reduce the fees parents need to pay.
“The Steering Committee has decided that all the seven branches of Pakistan School across the Sultanate will provide a relief of 10 per cent in tuition fees for the month of May 2020. The step has been taken to give relief to parents in these extraordinary circumstances,” the official spokesperson said.
He added that besides the reduction in the tuition fee, extra fees, including those that go towards computer classes and practical lab sessions, and examination fees for grades 11 and 12 have been entirely waived for the month of May. Also, once the fee for the month of April is paid, all previous late fee fines and re-admission charges will be removed for the time being.
“It is to be added that all the branches of Pakistan School in the Sultanate do not charge fees for the months of June and July anyway. So, for the following month, the parents of children from kindergarten to grade 10 will be paying between OMR33 and 40. Whereas, parents of children in grades 11 and 12 will pay between OMR45 and OMR54,” the spokesperson said.
Indian schools in the Sultanate will only take the basic tuition fee for the months from May to August. All extracurricular fee payments have been exempt. This will also be the case for those parents who’ve already paid extracurricular/non-tuition fees for the coming months, and these will be adjusted with their child’s next tuition fee.
The Board of Directors has also said that those parents or students who have tested positive for COVID-19 will receive a 50 per cent concession of tuition fees due until the end of the academic year 2020-21.
Mohammed Sazzad Hussein Chowdhury the chairman of Bangladesh schools in Oman, said his country’s embassy in the country had asked their government back home for funds to help schools during this time, as the schools’ main source of income was the fees received from parents.
“Our ambassador Mr Golam Sarwar has already written to our Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and asked them for some money that is equivalent to three months’ worth of school fees here,” he said. “We do not know how much money we will get, but whatever money we get, we will reduce that amount from the school fees due from our parents, and ask them to only pay the rest.
“We are also facing tough times at the moment, and are also looking at other donors within the country who can help us at this time, because we are finding it difficult to even pay teachers at this time,” added Chowdhury. “We are looking at the various options available to us and will make a decision in a few days’ time.
“We understand that it is, right now, very difficult for parents of our students to pay fees, because many of them have less work and reduced salaries, so we are trying to find a solution that helps everyone,” he said.
Additionally, A’Soud Global School (AGS) has said that it will reduce fees by 20 percent for the upcoming academic term. Parents who have already paid their school fees for the next term will have it adjusted against future academic payments.
“AGS is committed to continue providing quality education to all our students, support to our teaching staff, and as much help as possible to our parents. We look to the future of education with optimism, and will ensure our students are fully equipped and ready to return to normal school operations when the time is right,” said Darren Lyon, headmaster at A’Soud Global School.
