Applications to increase prices at several schools were rejected, officials announced.

Qatar’s ministry of education confirmed fee hikes for private schools are limited to 2%, restricting several institutions from substantially increasing tuition prices.

Omar al-Nama, assistant undersecretary for Private Schools Affairs, also told local Arabic daily Al Raya that the ministry approved only 8% of applications requesting approval for price hikes at private schools were accepted by authorities.

This comes as part of efforts to control tuition fees.

For the application to be approved, several factors must be considered, including financial deficit or loss that can be proven by official school records, or shifting the institution to a new campus with a higher rent.   

Last year, several concerns were raised by parents and students dealing with the expensive cost of schools despite all education shifting to online learning amid the ongoing global health crisis.

However, as cases began to decrease in Qatar, schools across the country resumed in person attendance as part of a nationwide blended learning system that was rolled out by the ministry.

Qatar has imposed strict precautionary measures at all public and private schools, including dividing the total number of classes with a maximum of 15 students in each class and leaving a distance of 1.5 meters between each person.

Read also: Schools prepare for exam season with stricter Covid-19.

Other precautionary measures include mandatory wearing of masks and organised entry and exit of students to the school building to prevent crowding.

However, as the number of current active cases surpass 10,000 for the first time in months, authorities have ruled out the closure of educational institutes, with officials saying the infection rate at schools is less than 1%.

As of Sunday, a total number of 10,686 active Covid-19 cases have been reported, with 474 new infections in the past 24 hours.

So far, Qatar has recorded 262 deaths from the novel coronavirus.

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