Tag Archives: education
Westminster to remain open
Westminster to remain open 6 May 2013 The Westminster School, which was threatened with closure last year, will remain open according to education authorities. The school operator Gems Education has withdrawn its application to the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) to close The Westminster School. The British curriculum school initially applied for closure in August 2012, after it was unable to increase fees above the permissible limits stipulated by KHDA’s fee framework. However, after further reviewing the situation, Gems officials have reversed this decision, ensuring the school’s 5,000 students do not have to seek admission elsewhere. The group announced that there would be no change in the fee structure for the academic year of 2013-14 as well. Also, parents who have paid registration fees for other Gems schools for the next academic year will have their fees refunded if they wish to remain at The Westminster School. “As a regulatory body, our job is to assure quality and accessibility throughout the education system in Dubai,” said Mohammed Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Compliance Commission at KHDA. “The initial application to close Westminster school was a business decision made by Gems and was processed in line with KHDA regulations. Following a secondary review, the organisation has withdrawn the application to close and the school will stay open.” The Qusais-based school, which attracts 60 per cent of its students from Sharjah and neighbouring emirates, amassed huge support from parents, teachers and pupils keen to keep the school open. According to a statement issued by Gems, the school operators said that they are very pleased to announce that it has decided to keep The Westminster School open. The statement said: “Gems would like to acknowledge the parents and students of the school for understanding and support over the past few months. The passion they have displayed for their school has been extraordinary. In consultation with the KHDA, the Westminster School will continue operations with no change to tuition fees for the academic year 2013/14.” Bushra Ali, a member of the school committee who has been actively campaigning to keep the school open, said that the student and parent community of the school were ecstatic about the news. “We are very happy and overjoyed about the whole thing. The best part is the announcement that there will be no fee hikes,” she said. “Our campaigning definitely had a hand in letting the authorities know that we want to be heard. It is a great thing that the school is staying open especially since the Dubai market for schools are saturated at the moment. Parents would have found it very hard to find new schools for their kids.” dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Costly lessons
Costly lessons Dhanusha Gokulan / 6 May 2013 If it weren’t for both their incomes, paying for the education of their sons would be out of the question for Pakistani parents Javed Aqib and Umaira Aqib. “My older son is in the seventh grade, and the younger one is in grade five. We spend about Dh3,000 on their tuition fees per month. For an average middle class family like ours, it is very expensive. But it is also an unavoidable expenditure,” said Umaira. According to a recent survey conducted by whichschooladvisor.com , for a vast majority of parents in the UAE, education is a major expense, with close to one in five families spending more than 30 per cent of their monthly household budget on school fees. The most common answer from respondents is between 11 per cent and 15 per cent of their combined household incomes. Which School Advisor (WSA), the UAE’s first dedicated school guide, was launched a little over a month ago to address the key needs of expatriate parents in the UAE. The survey was conducted online over a period of five weeks through March and April with 596 responses from parents around the UAE. Forty-five per cent of respondents live in Abu Dhabi, 43 per cent in Dubai, almost 10 per cent in Sharjah with the remainder spread through the other four emirates. The website has a lot of material for parents, employers and schools to digest and discuss. The website suggested that educating children in the UAE’s private school system is expensive. Until recently it was an expense that many expatriate parents could expect to share to some degree with the employer who had persuaded them to spend the key years of their career in the UAE. About 62 per cent of respondents in the survey said that they cover the entire cost of their children’s school fees in the UAE. A further 24 per cent receive a contribution from their company while just 13 per cent have their school fees paid in full. When asked whether the school fees paid represent ‘good value for the quality of school offering’, a key factor is whether parents pay fees themselves. Fifty-four per cent of those who have fees paid think those fees represent ‘good value’ while this falls to just 27 per cent of those who pay in full themselves. Almost one in five families spend more than 30 per cent of their household income on school fees. This varies considerably, however, depending on particular school curricula. Those families spending 10 per cent or less of their income on fees is 42 per cent for Indian curriculum schools, 28 per cent of International Baccalaureate (IB) schools, 25 per cent of British curriculum schools and 19 per cent of American curriculum schools. Most parents interviewed by Khaleej Times weren’t aware of the website until they were informed about it. “I didn’t know about it. But once I checked the website out, I think it is great. Especially for new parents who are planning to move to the UAE. And even for resident parents, the site is great,” said Brian McPhearson, a chartered accountant. McPhearson’s daughters are students of Dubai International Academy. “My girls have been going to DIA for two years now. When we moved here, finding a suitable school for the girls was a task. We had to depend on suggestions given by other parents who’ve been living here. But websites like this really help,” he added. Indian parent and Dubai resident Shailesh Shrivastav said: “I have three kids and I’ll be honest. Educating them is perhaps one of my biggest expenses. I like the idea of a guide for parents to choose good schools for kids, but perhaps, particularly Asian curriculum schools need to be educated on ‘how to manage finances’ and it is a myth if people believe that quality education is only available in expensive schools.” Apart from surveys and findings, the website also offers individual reviews of different schools in the country and guides on choosing good schools for kids. Users can also register on the website and have discussions with other members and ask for school-related advice. dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com Continue reading
Farmland Values Not A Bursting Bubble
Hembree Brandon | Delta Farm Press Farmland values not a bursting bubble Unsustainable Bank records in 2012 Farmland prices will go up and they’ll go down — and in the end, land prices will correct themselves — without a crash. As “bumps in the road” occur in the farm economy, “farmland prices will reflect that,” Abbot Myers, chairman of the board of the Mississippi Land Bank, said at the organization’s annual meeting. But, he says, while some analysts are warning of a sharp retreat in land prices, “I don’t foresee another farmland bubble like the one that occurred in the 1980s, when there was a total collapse in values. “Some people feel prices are too high right now; others say prices will keep steadily going up, but at a slower rate than the past few years. Everybody’s got a prediction. My answer: They’ll go up and they’ll go down — land prices will correct themselves.” Grain prices and livestock production and the profits they produce are key factors that affect farmland demand and prices, Myers says. “We saw what happened in the Midwest last year when they didn’t make a normal corn and soybean crop. Prices shot up. Now those prices are going down — one analyst has said he can make a very good case for $4 corn this fall — and beef and dairy prices are coming up. “It’s going to be a wild year, and a lot will depend on the weather, which we of course can’t control.” Land rents and production both affect farmland prices, Myers says. “When the production of the land and the renting of the land get out of kilter, something’s going to happen, and price can go down.” Many land purchases in the last year or two have been by non-agricultural buyers, he says, and “by farmers who’ve either paid cash or paid down a significant amount of cash — they’re not borrowing a lot of money for these purchases. I think this is going to help keep prices from falling the way they did in the 1980s. There may be a correction in farmland prices, but I don’t think it will be a bursting bubble.” Action, or inaction, of the government also is an influence on farmland prices, Myers says. “We still don’t have a new farm bill; there has been a lot of playing politics and not much accomplished. We in agriculture don’t have the votes and influence in Washington that we once had, and the basic support we’ve had for farm bills in the past may no longer be there. “All bankers like to have support and stability in agriculture, but I don’t see that happening in the future. I think we will be more and more dependent on crop insurance. As soon as they make the big payout in the Midwest for last year’s corn crop, politicians are going to say, ‘This shows how effective crop insurance is,’ and that’s the way things will go.” Unsustainable The government “has been printing money like crazy,” Myers says. “The U.S. has $6 trillion debt. Expenditures this year are projected at $3.6 trillion, while income from taxes will be $2.5 trillion. It doesn’t take rocket science to see that kind of math doesn’t work. If we keep this up, it’s going to adversely affect the entire country. “It looks like we’re also going to be spending a lot of money on the health care system. This is going to be a major drag on the economy if we don’t get it straightened out.” Despite areas of pessimism, Myers says, there are reasons for optimism. “The Fed has promised to keep interest rates low through 2015. They’re going to keep them low is because they hold $3.5 trillion in debt. If interest rates go up, it will blow the budget completely out of the water, interest rates will be low for the foreseeable future.” And he notes, the Dow-Jones Index has been setting new records recently. “All this tells me there is money in this country, and around the world, that’s looking for investment opportunities. With interest rates near zero, they can’t get a return on CDs or other monetary investments, so they turn to stocks and/or land, and that’s another reason land prices are going up. “A group from Argentina bought farm land in my area within the last year. They’d never seen buckshot soils before, but they’re trying to farm it, and they see it as a better investment than they can get elsewhere. “But, the pendulum will swing back — it always does. My advice, though: You’d better hang on to your working capital, because you’re going to need it.” Myers says he remains “very optimistic about our future in agriculture. Eighty percent of the people alive today are in developing countries. These countries are growing at a tremendous rate, their middle class is increasing at an unprecedented rate, and they want better food and clothes. They are buyers and consumers of what we produce. are increasingly the engine for our success. These people are going to be buyers and consumers of what we produce. U.S. farmers are the most efficient, the most productive, and the most driven to be successful than any industry in the world. Each farmer once fed 20 people — today it’s 165. We feed and clothe the world, and that’s reason to be optimistic about the future of agriculture.” Bank records in 2012 In his report on operations for the Mississippi Land Bank, President Gary Gaines said the organization has several record-setting accomplishments in 2012. “We had a record year for new loans, closing 612 new loans valued at $127 million, which brought outstanding volume to just over $500 million and a growth rate of 8.8 percent. We’re extremely proud of this. This has been our goal for a long time, and we’re very proud to have returned this amount to our stockholders. We’re confident this will continue to grow.” Member equity grew also, Gaines says. “At the end of the year, we had $85.2 million equity outstanding for our member owners. We had a 15.25 percent permanent capitalization ratio — a very strong financial condition that should enable us to weather any storms that may come along. “Credit quality continues to be outstanding, particularly in these difficult times, at 98 percent. Two of our branches, Starkville and Senatobia, had over $100 million in loan value outstanding, and Clarksdale was almost at $100 million. All of our branches are growing. The organization has continued its scholarship program for college students, Gaines says. “Our board is very supportive of higher education, providing scholarships to students in community colleges and universities in our 32-county area. All these students are outstanding, and we’re pleased to be a part of helping them toward a future of accomplishment and service.” Continue reading
