Dubai: Delhi Private School (DPS) Academy at Dubai International Academic City (DIAC) has decided to refund school fees to parents of children leaving the school by the end of October.
On October 17, school management announced the unexpected closure of the school in March 2017. The school follows the Indian Council for School Certificate (ICSE) curriculum.
Dinesh Kothari, pro vice-chairman of the school, told Gulf News, "Parents of students leaving by October-end can collect the transfer certificates within the next five working days and the tuition fee will be refunded to them within 15 working days."
Around 300 parents accepted offers from the school to accommodate their children in their Sharjah and Dubai branches although both these schools follow the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum.
Those parents that didn't accept the offer were told that they would forfeit the fee money for the month of November which amounted to a minimum of AED3,000.
Kothari also said that DPS Sharjah was adding a new campus by April 2017 to accommodate a rush of students.
"We have 450 seats in kindergarten at our Sharjah branch but received 950 applications in a matter of two hours after the registrations were opened. So we have decided to have this new campus which can accommodate up to 1,200 students. This campus, located at the existing Sharjah campus, will be a feeder school to accommodate the rush.
"Everything else in terms of teachers, teaching the curriculum will continue to be CBSE followed by both the Dubai and Sharjah schools", he added.
"We have always defended the interests of our students and are acting in their interests. We had to decide to close this DIAC campus as we were running losses but within 48 hours we offered to accommodate all students from this campus in the other campuses even if it meant expanding those schools."
Parents who want their children to follow the ICSE curriculum can avail of admissions in JSS International School at Al Barsha.
Kothari said, "We have entered into a written agreement with JSS (I) that they will accommodate all students from this school who wish to continue in the ICSE curriculum and the transition will be very smooth following this agreement.”
James Richard, principal of JSS International, Al Barsha, confirmed the agreement with the DPS management. "By April 2017 we are shifting to a bigger campus on Jumeirah Village Triangle with a capacity of 4,000 students. Right now we have 1,850 students and have accommodated many former students of DPS Academy."