When Parveen Abdullah was going through the school expenses of her children this year, she couldn’t help but travel back in time to her own student days. Growing up in Qusais, she studied at Our Own English High School, and back then, school was not only simple but also affordable.
“In Grade 12, my father paid Dh6,360 for a year for tuition fees including computer classes. However, the transport fees was Dh180 a month, which was paid for 10 months” she said. Her commute took just half an hour, and until Grade 7, her school bus didn’t even have air-conditioning. “When they finally introduced AC in Grade 8, the bus fee went up by Dh20, and that was considered a big jump.”
At the same school today, the tuition fee listed on the website is Dh16,562 — nearly three times what Abdullah’s father paid 20 years ago. Transport fees are charged separately and vary depending on the location.
Back then, the highlight of school life was the canteen. “The most expensive thing on the menu was Dh1 pizza and 50 fils Areej juice, which we were more than satisfied,” she recalled. Books and stationery were picked up from Sharjah’s Rolla area for about Dh200 a year. Classrooms had blackboards and chalk, while projectors were a rare luxury. Gadgets simply didn’t exist.
Fast forward two decades, and Parveen is now on the other side of the story. Her children’s school fees for one comes to Dh26,000 a year, one of the cheaper options in Dubai. “The school bus costs Dh10,000 a year, and instead of half an hour, my children spend nearly two hours daily in traffic,” she said.
Expenses that were once negligible now add up quickly. Textbooks and notebooks cost about Dh1,000 a year, while trending items like Dh150 water bottles or smart backpacks have become common demands. “It’s almost compulsory to have a laptop for higher classes, and for younger ones, an iPad is required. Everything is done digitally, from assignments to projects,” said Abdullah.
The canteen has also changed drastically. “What I got for Dh1.50 now costs my children Dh12 a day. Multiply that across the month, and it becomes another major expense.”
Facilities are unrecognisable. “My children’s school has football, basketball, and cricket pitches, along with smart boards and speakers. It’s a world apart from the single playground we had.”
“We studied with so little, and yet we were content. Today, children have everything, from laptops and iPads to international-level facilities. But the costs are overwhelming. What my father paid for the entire year, I now spend in two months,” added Abdullah.
For Mohammed Salim, who studied at Sharjah Indian School in the early 2000s, the contrast is just as distinct. His father paid only Dh1,200 a month for his education and of his three sisters. “One sister studied free of cost because of the school’s policy for families with multiple children. My father managed three children’s education with what people today spend on just one child,” he said.
Their home was just a kilometre away from school, and the siblings walked together every day. There were no school runs with traffic, no Metro, just a simple walk down sandy lanes.
“The only gadget we ever used was a calculator, and even that was allowed only in higher classes,” said Salim. Owning a fancy pen or a colourful eraser was a luxury. Bags were patched up and reused for years, while uniforms were stitched a size larger so they could last longer and were often passed down to siblings.
Today, Salim’s children travel in air-conditioned, GPS-enabled buses, while he pays about Dh800 per month per child just for tuition fees. “That’s not counting uniforms, books, gadgets, or extracurriculars. The difference is more than 300 per cent,” he said.
Gone are the days of heavy stacks of books as his children now use tablets, smart screens, and apps for homework. “Even the most advanced tablet is considered basic now, because every year new models are launched. These gadgets are not even considered a luxury,” he said.
Lunchboxes were filled with home-cooked food, and now it has been replaced with cafeteria meals. Stationery is no longer just a pen, ruler, and pencil box, but a list of branded supplies. “Back to school feels like a festival, like malls full of parents shopping, huge bills before the term even begins.”
For Amr Abdelaziz, who studied at Ittihad School in Al Mamzar in the 1990s, the memories are of simplicity. “There were no big malls or traffic jams during school runs. We walked or took old yellow buses without AC, with windows always down in the summer heat,” he said.
Back to school shopping meant a visit to the local stationery shop. “Notebooks had plain brown covers. If you were lucky, you got a new geometry box. Bags were used for two or three years, and shoes were polished until they wore out.”
Inside classrooms, the blackboard and chalk ruled and computers were away in a lab. “We visited the computer once or twice a month, and most didn’t work half the time. “If you lost your notebook, you lost your entire lesson because everything was copied by hand,” Amr recalled.
Now, as a father of three, he finds the comparison hard to ignore. “Back to school has become like a festival, malls, promotions, endless lists. Just supplies cross Dh1,500 per child. Add extracurriculars, cafeteria food, bus fees, and it’s Dh7,000 to Dh10,000 before the first bell even rings,” he said.
What amazes him most is the cultural shift. “My first day anxiety was about meeting new teachers. For my kids, it’s about posting first-day photos on Instagram or making a TikTok video with their new shoes. Schools send real time updates on apps, and parents like me get notified if the bus is late by five minutes. It’s a completely different world.”
For today’s parents, the comparison between their childhood and their children’s education is more than just about money. It is about a generational shift in values, lifestyle, and expectations.
“We grew up with less and made the most of it. Today, children have more than we ever dreamed of. But maybe they miss out on the simplicity we had,” said Amr.
© Khaleej Times
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