Helping students’ families

TDT | Manama

A number of Bahrain’s private schools have agreed on certain measures to reduce fees in order to help alleviate the burden on families, amidst the current exceptional circumstances and challenges caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This was reported yesterday by the Minister of Education at the weekly Cabinet session.

His Royal Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa chaired the remote session, which was attended by His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier.

The Education Minister reported that many private schools have agreed to decrease fees by five to 10 per cent, postponing the payment of the second term’s instalments to September for willing parents, re-scheduling the required fees for some parents, as well as exempting them from some services the students hadn’t benefitted from such as transport, food and extra-curricular activities.

In line with the report, the Cabinet tasked the Education Ministry, based on HRH the Premier’s directives, to continue urging private schools and universities to take into consideration the conditions of parents, while extending thanks to those institutions which had already expressed their readiness to reduce their fees.

Those who had already paid for certain services would be refunded, or have them removed from the next academic year’s fees. The Cabinet also mandated the Ministerial Committee for Financial, Economic and Fiscal Balance Affairs to study the conditions of kindergartens and their women staff. Several other issues were also tackled during the Cabinet session.