Egyptian Education Minister Tarek Shawky on Sunday denied rumors that tuition fees for private schools will have to be made in a single payment, without the option of paying in installments.
“I wrote on my Facebook page on Saturday that this claim is baseless, and that the ministry hasn’t issued such a decision. So far, we have not issued directives to private schools,” Shawky said during a phone-in interview with TV host Amr Adib on his show al-Hekaya (The Story) on the television channel MBC Misr.
“Every school will follow the usual procedures, and we will talk about private schools after high school exams are finished,” he said.
Private school tuition fees were a hot issue for parents, the Education Ministry and private schools during the school year 2019/2020.
Egypt suspended the school year in March as part of precautionary measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Parents then demanded that private schools return the tuition and school bus fees that they paid for the second semester, since their children didn’t receive the schools’ services during that time.
Egypt’s Education Ministry said in March that is was thinking about ordering the return of private schools’ second semester tuition fees to parents. However the issue remains unresolved.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
