Gov’t rolls over caps on tuition fee hikes into a second year: The limits up to which private and international schools were permitted to raise their tuition fees last year will remain in effect in the 2024-2025 academic year, the Education Ministry said yesterday.

Background: The Education Ministry in September 2023 introduced a tiered system of caps on tuition fee increases at private and international schools, with higher-priced schools facing tighter limits. The tiered system expanded upon an earlier 7% fee cap following years of lobbying by schools to revise the cap in light of rising inflation and the EGP devaluation. The initial cap was introduced in 2017 and imposed for the first time in the 2019-2020 academic year after parents lobbied to end what they called unjust increases.

The caveat: Caps on tuition fees are not extended to other fees charged by schools, such as bus fees and school activities.

The breakdown: The reinstated tiers will see the following caps on fee hikes come into effect for a second academic year:

#1- For international schools-

  • Up to 10% for schools charging EGP 30k-50k;
  • Up to 8% for schools charging EGP 50k-80k;
  • Up to 7% for schools charging EGP 80k-120k;
  • Up to 6% for schools charging EGP 120k-200k;
  • Up to 5% for schools charging over EGP 200k.

#2- For private Arabic and language schools-

  • Up to 25% for schools charging less than EGP 5k;
  • Up to 20% for schools charging EGP 5k-10k;
  • Up to 15% for schools charging EGP 10k-15k;
  • Up to12% for schools charging EGP 15k – 20k;
  • Up to 10% for schools charging EGP 20k – 25k;
  • Up to 7% for schools charging EGP 25k – 35k;
  • Up to 6% for schools charging over EGP 35k.

Exceptions: Schools that fall outside of the ministry’s purview — among them institutions owned by associations and other bodies, such as CAC, MBIS, and BISC — are not impacted by the caps.

Schools have kept their ears to the ground for updates: Faced with high operational costs and strained by the float of the EGP, private and international schools have been demanding flexibility on tuition fee hikes to cope with financial headwinds. We spoke with industry insiders last month to find out what they expected as they awaited the ministry’s decision.

Is the rehash enough? While some private school owners believe that reinstating last year’s tuition fee caps is sufficient, others have told us that an increase of no less than 40% is needed to mitigate current financial headwinds — even if that would have meant implementing a one-off hike limited to the upcoming academic year.

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