Egypt’s private and international schools are running the same play as last year: locking in fees before the ministry sets the ceiling. The Education Ministry has yet to issue the official fee-increase bands for AY 2026-27, though a government official tells EnterpriseAM that a decision is expected by the end of the month. Many private and international schools have already notified parents of 30-40% increases in fees, school administrators tell EnterpriseAM, citing higher operating costs. That tension sits at the center of the ministry’s wider effort to regulate the sector while keeping it attractive to investment.

REFRESHER- The ministry tightened oversight on private and international school fees last September, holding the line on the existing cap structure for a third consecutive year and dispatching committees to check that fees matched service quality.

Schools say the official increases are not enough. Private schools in particular are under significant financial pressure and need an exceptional increase, Private School Owners Association Chairman Badawy Allam tells EnterpriseAM. Without it, schools typically raise other fees to cover the academic year’s costs, he says. The ministry is expected to set the ceiling for private-school increases at 10-35%, but complying with the minimum wage requires more, something private schools have already requested in meetings with the minister, Allam says.

The ministry is stepping in: Education Minister Mohamed Abdel Latif met with the Foundation of International Schools in Egypt (FISE) earlier this month to discuss the sector’s challenges, including tuition fees, founder and CEO of education management firm Eduhive Karim Mostafa tells EnterpriseAM. The minister said annual tuition increases at international schools will range between 7% and 15%, with a binding decision expected soon, Mostafa says. International schools will also be required to publish their tuition fees on their websites.

The meeting covered a broader regulatory package for international schools, Mostafa says, including:

• A new ministerial decision on tuition fees to take effect next academic year;
• Barring homeschooling;
• Moving preschools to Education Ministry licensing, instead of the Social Solidarity Ministry;
• More emphasis on Arabic and religious studies starting next academic year and corresponding field visits to schools by the ministry;
• Increased focus on Egyptian national occasions and holidays, with less emphasis on celebrations such as Halloween and Thanksgiving;
• Advising international schools to join FISE.

International schools agreed to the ministry’s proposals ahead of the next academic year, Mostafa tells us.

Schools are pushing for a broader fee reset. The current setup doesn’t reflect operating costs, particularly for schools charging fees far below other private and international schools, Allam tells us. The association wants the ministry to allow those schools to gradually reprice over four years, bringing fees to a more fair level while supporting better educational quality. The association has formally submitted the request and is awaiting approval, Allam says, adding that a separate proposal to bring private schools into the simplified tax regime, paying a flat tax instead of facing multiple tax burdens has also been put forward.

Al Omran Language Schools Chairman Saber Omran expects the ministry’s tuition-cap brackets for AY 2026/27 to remain roughly in line with current levels — which is precisely why schools are accelerating the rollout of American or international divisions, he tells EnterpriseAM. While the cap regime governs national-curriculum tuition, schools after top-line growth are launching international sections to capture higher margins, alongside adjustments to fees for textbooks, extracurricular activities, and bus transportation. Omran frames the American-section expansion as a “mechanism” — the direct response to ministry-mandated annual increases that don't keep pace with operating costs.

The sector is facing a real squeeze from fee caps and minimum-wage requirements, Allam tells us. International schools are also working to replace foreign teachers with fluent Egyptian teachers to contain costs. Even so, the number of new schools added each year is falling, making stronger incentives and investment support necessary to encourage growth, Allam says.

The private-school supply is expanding slowly. The number of private schools grew by just 496 since 2021, totaling 8,806 across all pre-university stages in AY 2025/26, the same government official tells EnterpriseAM. Public schools grew to 18.7k from 16.8k over the same five-year period.

One solution is to give private operators the right to manage and oversee some public schools, Allam tells us. Under Allam’s proposal, education investors would receive the per-student cost already borne by the state budget in exchange for management and oversight, letting the government step back from operating public schools without changing what parents pay. The annual cost of a student in public schools runs around EGP 20k, compared with EGP 15-25k in private education, depending on the model, Allam says. Redirecting that state spending through private operators could improve quality without adding to household costs.

The Education Ministry already piloted this model in December, handing 33 official international schools over to private operator Emerald Education under a similar arrangement. Those schools remain bound by the standard 7% fee-hike cap. Roughly 40 more national schools are currently under review for private management, with a broader public-private partnership program for 24 schools set to launch as well.

Our take: Tuition season is open, but whether caps are enforced remains to be seen. We’ve flagged this mismatch before: K-12 remains structurally undersupplied, and investors are still circling the sector despite the fee ceiling. But macro pressures and financing costs mean the cap-versus-cost gap isn’t closing on its own. Until inspections and penalties are as real as the caps themselves, schools will keep setting fees first and asking permission later.