Parents crushed under pressure of school activities, fee hikes

Parents crushed under pressure of school activities, fee hikes

By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: Parents are under a lot of financial pressure after schools have started to hold a host of post-pandemic events and activities. Parents have to provide their children with the required items such as clothes, souvenirs and many other things, not to mention extra homework assignments that cost parents a lot of money, along with private classes, whose fees are rising too.

Amidst the activities and events in schools, giving gifts to teachers has become a new trend that puts more pressure on parents. According to a parent, spending on extracurriculars exceeds KD 500 per semester to cover it all. “Some public schools constantly obligate their students to do extra homework that is not related to school subjects, and due to the study pressure, most of them rely on student services centers, which costs the parents lots of money every semester,” said Haya Al-Rashidi, assistant manager of a public school.

Rashidi said the school administration is mainly responsible for increasing demands by teachers, especially since this affects students’ grades if they do not submit their extra homework to the teacher. Rashidi said repeated school events and activities that require buying related items, especially for elementary and kindergarten grades, pile social