THE BUSINESS OF EDUCATION - International Indian

[ COVER STORy ]
School has been serving the community for
so many years but we cannot increase fees
more than 6% a year. With radical cost of
living increases in the last few years, we’ve
been lobbying the government to let us increase
the fees.”
But isn’t the government just trying to
protect the interest of parents so that they
can afford to send their kids to school?
“We are not a non-profit school. If we can’t
make ends meet how can we assure quality
education? So I’m saying, either you allow
me to close the schools and open up new
schools in a new name or you allow me to
remodel them and increase the fees. New
schools are opening and luring our teachers.
So, if I can pay my teachers only Dhs
2500 per month, other new schools not
subject to the cap in fees are paying more.
There is a total disconnect,” Varkey says
clearly frustrated.
“When the cost of living goes up, the responsibility
to ensure that an employee is
not underpaid is the responsibility of the
employer. We have to factor in the cost of
living and peg salaries according to that.
Just because we are educators and there is
a traditional mindset that education should
not be for profit, you can’t expect the schools
to bear the burden. If lower income families
still want to send their children to higher
fee-paying schools, employers will have to
seriously look at raising parents’ salaries.
“We’ve been in Dubai for 40 years, serving
the community. Our first school started
in 1968 with fees of Dhs 30 a month and
now it’s only about Dhs 300 a month. We
can’t manage on that. A new school is allowed
to charge whatever they want. New
Indian schools opening up charge from Dhs
9,000 to 20,000 per year and we are still in
the Dhs 3000 to Dhs 8,000 bracket. How
do you expect me to retain good teachers
who’ve been loyal to me for 25-30 years?
There is no justification. Just because you
want to keep inflation down, you can’t expect
educators to suffer. We are answerable
to our bankers, we borrow money from the
banks and we have to pay them on time.
“At GEMS we don’t take donations or
charity. Take a look at the GEMS World
Academy, where we are at the first phase
of development. By the time we finish we
will have spent Dhs 250 million for that
GEMS Wellington International School
Royal Dubai School
GWA Facilities – Cafeteria
Our Own English High School
Sunny Varkey, Sherly Varkey celebrating Our Own
English High School, Dubai 40th Anniversary;
also pictured are previous principals of OOEHS,
Madhav Rao and Suresh Mathur
school. So what happens is that in the next
5-10 years we are just literally recovering
this money.
“If you tell me in the next 18 months you
have to open 200 schools, I can do that because
we have the funds. In this office we
spend US $25-40 million in just back office
work. We have a training department,
marketing and communications team,
project management, finance and purchasing
department – just like a multinational
corporation.
“But we are not big enough to be a public
company yet so we don’t have to publish our
audit reports. Abraaj Capital has invested
from their infrastructure and growth fund
for 10-12 years, and is a 25% shareholder
in our company. We had top venture capitalists
who wanted to be our partners but
we never agreed because they look at short
term investments of 3-4 years. Education
is not a quick profit making enterprise and
you must have a long term vision. We do
have a mandate to go public in 5-7 years.
These are the real challenges of privatizing
education and operating it as big business.
Being the middleman between the
government and the parents is one of the
most difficult tasks for Sunny Varkey. “But
for the most part, I’m always on the side
of the parents. We encourage PTAs in our
schools to become involved in the direction
the school is going. They are not asked
to be involved in fundraising like in other
schools. I am available 24-7 and parents
have direct access to me.”
His accessibility and personal involvement
is uncommon. “I don’t know whether
you are aware, but in Welcare Hospital,”
Sunny’s well known medical business enterprise,
“I would roam around in the lobby
regularly for 2-3 years when we started. I
would sit there, watching, talking to patients
asking them if our doctors did a good
job. They can talk to me anytime. I’m your
3am guy.” People have noticed his dedication
and he has been recognized with various
awards, both as an entrepreneur and an
educator. The most recent award conferred
being the Rajiv Gandhi Award this year for
his work in education.
Quality education offered at a varied
price range. Varkey uses the airline metaphor
to compare his international-class
THE INTERNATIONAL INDIAN 59