Parents of children in private schools said that fees this year are “disproportionately high” compared to citizens’ financial capabilities amid the coronavirus crisis.
Masoud Shraiha, a citizen who has three children registered in private schools, said that he is no longer able to afford his children’s fees as he has lost more than JD15,000 of his savings during the crisis.
Shraiha told The Jordan Times that his contracting business was shut down for weeks, halting projects that were ongoing at the time.
“Once the lockdown was over, some of my clients did not want to complete their projects, saying they wanted to wait and see how the pandemic and the Kingdom’s economy pan out,” added Shraiha.
The “bigger problem”, according to Shraiha, is that although potential investors have began reconsidering investing in the Kingdom, the price of services such as education fees and others are still the same.
“Schools are expecting parents to pay the same amount they did even though there is still less money coming in,” Shraiha said.
Marina, a mother of two who preferred her last name to remain anonymous, said she lost her job during the pandemic while her husband kept his, which caused “a serious sudden shock to the household’s finances”.
Marina said she was “shocked” to see that private schools are demanding the same fees amid a pandemic.
“We all know that private school fees are already ridiculously expensive, so you would think that they would consider lowering their prices and taking a small loss in profits in order to maintain the same number of students. Their selfishness is going to cost them more students and thus more money …” Marina added.
However, private school owners say that they, too, have been affected by the pandemic. Jaser Faris, an owner of a private school in Shmeisani said that “not all parents paid last semester’s fees while we were required to pay the teachers almost in full.”
He added: “There is this notion that we private school owners are the source of all evil, which can be true in some cases, but a lot of us are struggling to pay the teachers and other workers. I returned the bus fees to the parents, but still had to pay the bus drivers, for example.”
This article has been adapted from its original source.
