The Education Ministry is rolling out new measures to tighten supervision of tuition, curricula, and services in private and international schools. This comes as schools face rising costs — on the back of the latest increase in minimum wage — currency pressures, and parental pushback on fees.

IN CONTEXT- International schools kicked off the 2025-2026 academic year this week, while private and public schools will open their doors during the week of 20 September.

Tuition fees under the spotlight: The ministry is dispatching committees to private and international schools to ensure tuition fees match the quality of services provided, a government source told EnterpriseAM. This comes after the ministry rejected requests from schools for above-average fee increases to cover expected cost hikes. Schools found to be overcharging or breaching annual increase caps could face penalties.

The cap on fee hikes remains unchanged: The ministry has kept the limits up to which private and international schools were permitted to raise their tuition fees in effect for the 2025-2026 academic year for the third year running, Private School Owners Association Deputy Chairman Badawy Allam told EnterpriseAM.

REMEMBER- The Education Ministry in September 2023 introduced a tiered system of caps ontuition fee increases at private schools, with higher-priced schools facing tighter limits. Schools charging EGP 40k and above are limited to a 6% increase for the current academic year, while schools that charged smaller fees were allowed to increase fees at a greater level, all the way to 25% for schools charging less than EGP 6k. For high-end international schools, fee increases for those charging EGP 100k or more were capped at 6%, while those charging less could increase fees by up to 10% depending on how much they charged.

The crackdown goes beyond tuition, as the ministry is moving to regulate areas where schools have traditionally added hidden costs. Schools are now barred from forcing parents to buy uniforms from designated vendors, a step aimed at preventing inflated pricing. The ministry has also introduced a new formula for calculating school bus fees, allowing schools to charge only the actual operating costs of transport plus a 10% margin. It has warned that any school found in violation of these official instructions will face legal action, as part of efforts to curb arbitrary pricing and ensure fairness across the sector.

Why is this important? Former parliamentary education committee member Magda Nassar told EnterpriseAM that the measures are a much-needed step to bring order to Egypt’s fragmented private education market. By tying fees more closely to service quality and introducing tighter controls on ancillary costs, the ministry is signaling a shift toward more transparent, regulated operations in a sector long criticized for uneven standards and opaque pricing.

National curriculum requirements are back in focus: The ministry is once again stressing that international schools must teach the required subjects from the national curriculum. International schools will also be required to purchase the Arabic-language textbook from the ministry.

ICYMI- The Education Ministry last year announced that it would add grades from Arabic, religious studies, history, and social studies to students’ end-of-year grades starting this academic year at international schools. A government source told EnterpriseAM that there would be no reversal of the decision, though the ministry is open to simplifying the content during the initial rollout.

What’s next? The new oversight system — if enforced consistently — could reshape how private schools budget, price, and deliver education. But with wage reforms and cost inflation still weighing on operators, pressure to revisit tuition brackets could resurface as the year unfolds.

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