UAE’s school managements need another year or two before they think expansion: Alpen Capital

UAE’s school managements need another year or two before they think expansion: Alpen Capital

Dubai: It could take another year or so before school operators in the UAE feel confident enough about taking on expansion or build new campuses. School managements will also need to see growth in new admissions to compensate for all those children who had to leave because of circumstances created by the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on jobs and livelihoods. But schools will still need to see a majority of their students return to physical classes after more than a year of learning from the confines of homes. Only if these fall into place will managements be able to seriously re-think about raising new capacities, according to a new report brought out by Alpen Capital, a specialist consultancy. "School operators have definitely suffered on revenue and profitability because of the closures," said Krishna Dhanak, Executive Director of Alpen Capital. "This region had 50 per cent in the ratio of school closure dates during the last academic year, whereas the global average was 30 per cent. "Because of the higher number of closures, schools lost more from loss of transportation fees and F&B revenues from their canteens. Plus, schools also had to contend with government orders on fee reductions after