NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL

 
Let us raise fees or we will shut classes says schools operator

 
Dubai - Mar 30:  The country’s largest school operator is threatening to close old Asian community schools within two years if it is not allowed to raise fees.

The warning comes less than two weeks after Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which regulates the emirate’s schools, barred private schools from increasing their tuition fees in the new academic year because of tough economic conditions.

Sunny Varkey, the chairman of the operator, GEMS Education, said in a letter to the KHDA’s director general, Dr Abdulla al Karam, that urgent solutions are needed to problems that “challenge the very existence of these schools”.

“In the current circumstances,” he wrote, “a number of our schools have been driven to breaking point and we as GEMS can no longer commit to maintaining our own internal and KHDA quality standards ... Consequently, it is highly likely that we will have no choice but to begin to close down unviable schools over the next two years.”

Mr Varkey was speaking of older community schools, some of which have been operating for decades and have fees of less than Dh5,000 (US$1,360) a year.

Those schools have served Dubai for up to 40 years, he said, with fees “significantly lower than the Dh15,000 and above average fee charged by new schools for the same product with no track record of delivering quality education in UAE”.

Most Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai charge roughly between Dh1,000 and Dh7,000 a year. They are believed to house more than 40,000 pupils.

By contrast, some schools founded in the past three years charge more than Dh20,000 per year for higher grades.

The letter is Gems’s first public reaction to the KHDA’s freeze on fees. It is also the latest public spat in the often tumultuous relationship between the market leader and its powerful regulator.

More broadly, it voiced the frustrations of school operators who feel the tuition freeze hampers their ability to match more expensive schools in performance.

In a statement, Mohammed Darwish, the chief of the regulations and compliance commission at the KHDA, said the authority was drafting a response to the letter.

Shahnaz Aslam, the mother of a pupil at Al Majd Indian School in Dubai, said a fee rise would hurt families such as hers. “If it is all business and money, the children would not be able to go to school. The future is going to be ruined,” she said.

Mrs Aslam pays about Dh4,500 a year in fees for her daughter. But she worried that closures could lead to shortages of school places similar to those plaguing Abu Dhabi’s Indian schools.

Mr Varkey demanded that older schools be allowed to “restructure” their fees to deal with higher operating costs including land leases, teacher salaries and the construction of new facilities.

Newer schools that are allowed to enter the market with higher fees are damaging the older schools by luring away teachers with more competitive salaries, he said.

The result of schools not being able to respond to rising rents is that they are forced to relocate, which, he argued, is more costly than a one-time fee increase.

Gems said that over the past six years the average increase in operating costs for Asian schools has been 57 per cent. The average increase in tuition fees has been 27 per cent. Meanwhile, commercial rents, unlike residential rents, have been increasing.

Principals at some lower-income schools said that the problems cited in Mr Varkey’s letter are important.

“On behalf of the schools, they have voiced for us,” said one principal whose school fees are between Dh2,070 and Dh2,250 a year. “All the concerns he raised in the letter are true and genuine.”

He said his school’s landlord had tried to raise the lease by up to 600 per cent two years ago, but the KHDA intervened on the condition that the school not increase its fees.

Marza Ghalib, the principal of the Central School in Dubai, which charges Dh2,500 to Dh4,400 a year, said he expected that the schools would not develop their facilities and increase classroom sizes, rather than shut down.

“The quality of the school and the facilities to the children – to make some investment is required,” he said.

He urged the authority to allow fee increases of between 15 and 20 per cent, which he estimated would add Dh20 to Dh25 a month to school bills.

The rent his school pays to rent the land it is on increased by 400 per cent two years ago, he said.

Musical therapy makes its debut at SKMC

  
Prisca Benoit, a pianist from France performs at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. Sammy Dalai / The National

ABU DHABI - MAR 30: More than 50 patients at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City received a new kind of therapy yesterday: musical medicine.

Assembled in the main lobby of the hospital, the patients heard a live piano recital which, according to specialist neurologists, can improve brain function, affect energy levels and even reduce pain.

The recital was hosted by Dr Kamal Chemali, the director of music and medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, an American institution which uses complementary therapies such as art and music to aid a patient’s recovery. The Cleveland Clinic also manages Sheikh Khalifa Medical City.

Several types of music were played, he said, to reach the most patients. “There is slow rhythms to calm the heart rate and high-tempo beats to trigger the motor area in the brain which stimulates movement; this can be great for patients with difficulties in that area.

“It is difficult to measure individual effects on each patient, but feedback we have had from other concerts like this has shown even one hour of live music can raise energy levels and reduce stress by 60 to 80 per cent for as long as a week.”

The hour-long performance by Prisca Benoit, from Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique du Paris, was a repertoire of music by Brahms, Beethoven and the Spanish composer Albéniz.

Neurological studies have shown that music can have many physical benefits. By placing sensors on the skin, Dr Chemali and other doctors at the Cleveland Clinic have been able to demonstrate a physical reaction even when a patient does not like the music.

Although it is a new form of treatment, doctors believe musical medicine will be useful here.

“The UAE and Abu Dhabi ,in particular, seem to have placed such an important investment on the arts that our work is really relevant here,” said Dr Neil Cherian, a neurologist from the Cleveland Clinic who is here for a medical forum as part of the Abu Dhabi Festival.

Pesticide spray investigated after baby boys die

The Bakari triplets, Suhail, Ali and Halla. two of the boys died on Saturday; Halla, right, is recovering in an Ajman hospital

AJMAN - MAR 30: Police are investigating whether two baby triplets were killed and their sister made ill by pesticides sprayed into their neighbours’ flat.

The five-month-old boys, Suhail and Ali Bakari, died on their way to hospital on Saturday, after the whole family developed stomach pains the day before.

The third triplet, Halla, is recovering at Sheikh Khalifa Hospital, where her condition is said to be improving.

Police are investigating the possibility the babies were killed by the pesticides used to fumigate their neighbours’ flat in a building in Naeemiya on Thursday night.
The initial findings of the investigation could be released as early as today, according to a senior prosecutor.

Brig Ali Alwan, the director general of Ajman Police, said yesterday: “As soon as we learnt about this incident we asked both the families to vacate the premises and our investigation team moved in to get the evidence for our laboratory.”

Officers have seized the pesticides used by the extermination company and are questioning its owners, Brig Alwan said.

The name of the company has not been released.

The children’s father, Hassan Bakari, a Palestinian, said the family began feeling ill on Friday. They drove themselves to Sheikh Khalifa Hospital where they were given medication before returning home, apparently feeling better.

The triplets’ condition deteriorated the next day, and the boys died as Mr Bakari was driving them back to the hospital.

Halla was admitted to the intensive care unit, where she remained for two days. She is now being treated in the paediatrics ward.

Hamad Taryam, the head of Ajman Medical Zone, said his team did all they could to save the boys’ lives.

Mr Bakari said the exterminators sprayed his neighbour’s apartment near Safeer Mall on Thursday evening
.
“After this pest-control operation, we were all sick,” he said. “The smell from the chemical was strong in our house as well, as if it was our house that the chemical had been sprayed.

“The next day all my children were crying inconsolably like they had problems in their stomach; we were also having stomach pains and my wife was even vomiting.”

He said his neighbours kept away from their home after the pesticide was sprayed, but that his family was not warned about the dangerous chemicals.

Mr Bakari does not blame his neighbours; he believes the pest control company is responsible for what happened to his family.

Police evacuated and closed off both apartments for 24 hours after the deaths.

Brig Alwan said both the company and Mr Bakari’s neighbours were being questioned and the case had been referred to the Ajman Public Prosecution.

An official from the prosecution office, who did not wish to give his name, said they hoped to announce the initial findings of investigations today.

Mr Bakari said once the investigation was complete, he wished to bury his children in Abu Dhabi, alongside relatives.

Municipal officials said pest-control firms are required to abide by strict safety regulations. They must provide a list of all the pesticides they use along with valid registration certificates issued by the Ministry of Environment and Water to show they fall within safety guidelines.

Specialists from five nations in search for Sheikh Ahmed

ABU DHABI/RABAT, MOROCCO: MAR 30: Rescue workers from at least five countries are searching for Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed, who disappeared on Friday when the glider he was inside crashed into a lake near Rabat, the capital of Morocco.

Sheikh Ahmed is managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, and a younger brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

The aircraft’s pilot, a Spaniard, was rescued shortly after the accident and taken to a Rabat hospital, said a spokeswoman from the Spanish Embassy, referring to the man as a co-pilot.

Spain has contributed members of the Special Underwater Activities Group of its Civil Guard, the embassy spokeswoman said.

Moroccan and Spanish workers have been joined by teams from France and the UAE, according to Morocco’s state news agency, MAP.

Meanwhile, the United States has lent specialised equipment and personnel to the search, said a spokesman for the US Embassy.

Sources could not comment on how many people are involved in the search. It is unclear what caused the crash, and details of the pilot’s rescue have not been made public.

Moroccan gendarmerie have blocked roads to the lake, formed by the Sidi Mohammed ben Abdellah dam. Local fishermen have also been taking part in the search. A steady traffic of security service vehicles and cars with diplomatic plates came and went over the weekend from the waterfront estate where Sheikh Ahmed has been staying.

The region has been drenched with heavy rains recently, raising the water level in the lake to the dam’s full capacity, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.