Official assures parents hit by school closure

Hajar Khamis, Staff Reporter

Ali Al Hosani, Director of Sharjah Private Education Authority, has called on the parents of the students affected by the closure of the ‘New Generation Private School’ to check with the authority as it would provide the students with study desks in schools of similar curriculum and equal tuition.

He also asked each parent to check with the authority in case the closed school refused to give the tuition fees he already paid back to him, noting that the authority sends a team daily to monitor the process of giving tuition fees back to the parents.

Al Hosani said so in his response to a complaint lodged by a parent, Abu Lujain, via the Direct Line programme broadcast live on Sharjah Radio and TV. Abu Lujain complained that after paying the registration fees and after the academic year started, the parents of the students of the ‘New Generation Private School’ were surprised by a note that the school was offered for sale and would not receive students. The decision had a bad effect on the students and their parents, who started a new journey looking for another school at a very tough time when it would be very difficult to get a desk.

In a telephone conversation via the programme, Al Hosani said: “The school was offered for sale in May 2019 and the investor told us accordingly that the school will be the property of another investor. The administrative procedures, however, could not be completed by the new investor and that is why he told us that the school would be closed in June 2019. As an authority entrusted with regulating private education in the emirate, we met with the owner, who told us that he could not continue because of the losses incurred and would close the school. Based on this, we immediately communicated with other schools to accommodate the 250 students and agreed with Al Dhiyaa school to accept the students against the same tuition fees.”

Al Hosani explained that the authority would have to run the same school if no alternative desks were available for the students in another school. He instructed the owner of the closed school to order the school staff to be available to give the paid tuition fees back to the parents.

Tuition fees are paid to a school in return for a service offered to students throughout the academic year, Al Hosani said, adding that parents should be committed to paying such fees for the school to continue providing its services.

“However, insolvent parents who cannot pay the tuition fees can check with the authority, which can secure school desks for their children until solutions for the previous payments are reached,” he said.