Dear Verucca,

I am in no position to dispute the core of the complaint against your school. There are of course grasping and inefficient employers all over the world but in Dubai the education system is so well organised and so efficiently managed, operated and monitored that badly run schools are few and far between. I am curious to know therefore, why you have not, apparently, made any complaints to the respective authorities if the school is as bad as you claim.

I am British and I lived and worked in Dubai for almost 25 years from 1978 until 2003. During that time my wife and I raised two children from birth and put them through British curriculum schools in Dubai until their mid teens. The standard of education they received was of the very highest order. Their respective schools were reputable establishments running small classes with well-qualified, predominantly British teaching staff and Principals. Our children, having been educated wholly in Dubai until their mid teens are now attending first-class universities in the United Kingdom having won those places based overwhelmingly on the quality of the education they received in Dubai.

Your remark about your school being dominated by one particular nationality seems to insinuate that this is somehow wrong. In fact, as you well know, foreign schools operating in Dubai are required to follow a particular national or international curriculum. Hence there are a number of British schools, an American School, several Indian schools, Pakistani schools, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Fillipino, Japanese and so on. There are also Montessori schools, which follow the International Baccalaureate. These foreign schools are quite rightly - and by definition - dominated by their respective nationalities of both staff and students. The school you work for will be no exception. Indeed, it will be the norm, so why bother to mention it?

Private schools are businesses and their stock in trade is education. Students are their customers and like any other business, customers provide the revenue. Where else do you expect a private schools revenue to come from? Therefore, it is a commercial necessity for such schools to attract as many fee-paying students as they reasonably can. They have profits to make and expenses to meet, easily the largest of which are the salaries and associated expenses of their staff including you. However, in Dubai each school has to agree its student complement with the Ministry of Education and if this number is later found to be significantly exceeded it is treated as a serious matter and renders the school liable for immediate closure. Thus, instead of exceeding its quota, your school probably has yet to fill it, hence the preoccupation you mention. Also, all schools have to apply in advance for employment visas for incoming teachers and it simply isnt that easy to have such a rapid and easy turnover of teachers as you claim. Finally, the Ministry of Education in Dubai is a highly efficient and properly run organisation and I can assure you that they DO make regular inspection visits to all schools, despite your claim to the contrary, and not all of their visits are pre-arranged.

No Tom, Dick, or Harry can casually open a school in Dubai. There are strict criteria to be met. It has to be in a purpose designed building which itself must be registered and approved for use as a school usually from the time of its design and construction. It must follow a recognised curriculum. The school Principal and staff all have to be appropriately qualified with certificates atteste