A private school based in Dubai was ordered by the Dubai court to pay the family of a boy Dh 77,500 for not paying attention to his academic performance. The sum included not only the school taxes for the first two grades, but also a moral compensation for promoting to boy to a higher class although the student’s performance was not competitive to that of his peers.
The Dubai Court of Appeal’s ruling this Monday came after the Civil Court had dismissed the father’s complaint. The parents wanted to be compensated by the school, because it couldn’t provide a good education to their son, and in addition the school promoted the boy to the next grade despite his apparent low performance. The parents won and now the school has to pay the family a total of Dh77, 500 – the school fees for 1st and 2nd Grade and a compensation for moral damages.
Such court case may sound a little strange to many, but parents actually should be encouraged to approach the courts with similar issues. Education in Dubai is a big business and many private schools, although supposedly approved by the local regulator, KHDA, continue to provide bellow average international standards education, despite charging extremely high tuition fees.
After the father filed his complaint at the Dubai Prosecution, they immediately referred the matter at the Civil Court and demanded an expert’s opinion via a filed memorandum. The Civil Court had to find an educational expert and have him state a professional opinion on the claim. After the lower court couldn’t assign an expert, it had to dismiss the civil case and the father referred to the Appeal Court.
According to the educational expert, assigned by the Dubai Appeal Court, the school really failed to properly educate and prepare the boy. First, the school was guilty of the boy’s low academic performance, and second, it also promoted him to 2nd grade which was clearly wrong and unacceptable. The Appeal Court then pronounce its verdict and the private school had to return the fees taken from the family for the first two grades, a total of Dh 37,500. The school was also sentenced to compensate them for moral damages in the form of Dh 40,000.
