One International School

What's annoying is this is required of RETURNING STUDENTS, not NEW students. And there is nothing illegal, just totally unethical. Apparently, "ethics" is not taught in schools.

 

Through what I saw with my step child in the education system (Public) very little is taught. In my home country some students avoid the classroom but in Philippines it seems it is the teachers who prefer not to be there.

However, the issue of fees is purely 'market-forces' and as soon as ONE loses too many students it will review its policy on reservation fees. If enough parents are willing to pay then they have no reason to replace that system.

 

NMRN: I STRONGLY STRONGLY STRONGLY disagree that school fees should be determined by "supply and demand" or "market-force." CHILDREN are not commodities like mangos and beef. You can't just move to a cheaper school if some totally greedy owner decides to extort an outrageous fee on top of the highest tuition in the province. Bouncing a kid from one school to another is bad enough. The OIS website has no mention of "extra fees may be added whenever we feel like it" ..

I talked to my friends and they have already enrolled their kid in Montessori for the next semester, which, with Bosco, apparently are the better schools in the city. I also heard of another person's child who went from Montessori to One Int'l last year and is moving back next semester, and another One Int'l student who switched to Bosco.

I would be shocked if ANY parent would keep his kid at OIS knowing this could happen any day, so unethical. I also read recently that a private school in my home state of Missouri just collected $10,000,000 (yeah, thats 500 MILLION pesos) from loyal alumni. You don't create loyalty by adding an extra 30% fee in a surprise invoice.

 

(rant deleted)..
Could somebody explain HOW this non-refundable over-and-above "reservation fee" makes any business sense ??? There are plenty of places with reservation fees, but they are ALL "deductable from tuition."

 

Is the reservation fee is applied to the tuition or an additional cost? They could be trying to establish commitment from students that are registering. Maybe they get a lot of people who register and then decide to go to a different school. By the time the school is notified other prospective students have already been turned away and they can't get additional students since they have already registered somewhere else because they couldn't get into OIS. My guess it's applied to the tuition cost so it's really a fee to see who is committed to going to the school and who isn't. How competitive is it to get in the schools like Montessori, Don Bosco and OIS? I wonder how many returning students don't return. There are a couple examples in this short thread.

 

San Pedro Academy in Valencia is just 1,200 per month and that includes books.

 

We agree on the same subject - my post was stating how I think ONE would see the situation, i.e. to remove such fees if market forces caused a big enough decline in their enrollment figures. Personally I dislike market forces - there are many things in our complex world I dislike but have to, to some extent, accept.

 

Heard thru the grapevine that ALL One International students are being hit with the added fee, NOT APPLICABLE TO THE TUITION. Older students are being hit with a P 100,000 EXTRA fee on TOP of tuition. Sounds like a whole bunch of parents are thinking of bailing out..

Maybe i'm just truly ignorant of the Philippine culture, but i can't imagine any Filipino or foreigner, no matter how wealthy, forking over that much without some guarantee that it wouldn't happen next semester... An excellent case study for business schools.

WOULD LIKE TO CONFIRM IF THIS IS OR IS NOT APPLICABLE TO TUITION AT ONE INT'L ?????????

 

Just for update, checking around shows that many schools that have a significant rate of no shows at school beginning, do charge a fee, but never over about 10% of tuition, never without notice, never without listing it on the website, and never where it can't be applied to tuition. Also it's rarely done for returning students. Colleges which deal with kids with half a dozen or so acceptances do it a lot for freshmen, but only under the above conditions.

 

My daughter is at Cittadini (next to Don Bosco) and I have said here before I am happy with her education thus far. The cost structure has been the same in her entry year as it is for the coming year. A 10,000p down payment (plus a small P & C membership) at registration and then a monthly amount depending on the year of study increasing as she advances through the grades. So for instance, she is starting Grade 3. Total Cost 37,535p plus P & C being down payment 10k then monthly 3,100p and 2,735p in March. Offer a 5% discount if you pay up front. This includes all text books which are provided.