When Education Becomes a Debt Trap, Something Is Deeply Broken

I just read an article in the Khaleej Times and I have so many thoughts and opinions, I just have to get them out. The headline:

School costs soar in UAE: Parents turn to loans, credit cards to pay tuition fees

A recent survey found that 63 per cent of parents expect education expenses to reach Dh250,000 to Dh600,000 by the time their child enters university

You can find the full article by clicking this link.

It’s 2025, and families in the UAE are literally taking out Dh60,000 loans and maxing out credit cards just to cover tuition, transport, uniforms, and books. Schools raise fees by another 2.5%, and banks rub their hands with glee as desperate parents sign repayment plans. We’ve normalized education as a luxury item rather than a right and families are suffocating under the weight.

And is it worth it?!

If traditional schools actually prepared kids for the modern world - the world of AI, remote work, entrepreneurship, global collaboration - maybe these sacrifices would make sense. But they don’t. Most schools in the UAE (and worldwide) are still operating on a 19th-century model:

• Memorize, regurgitate, forget.

• Obsess over standardized tests that allow schools to get better ratings and command high tuition fees.

• Rank kids like products on an assembly line.

  
  

Meanwhile, creativity, problem-solving, adaptability, and emotional intelligence, the very skills our kids will need to thrive, are afterthoughts. Parents are going into generational debt for a system that churns out graduates who are often unprepared for the jobs of tomorrow.

I read in a Facebook parenting forum yesterday that one mother’s son will lose a full year of learning in school because she can't afford the fees. That’s not education, that’s gatekeeping. And here’s the irony: many kids who step outside the rigid school system (through homeschooling, self-directed learning, or alternative education) end up better prepared for real-world success than those who march through the conveyor belt of “traditional schooling.”

Let’s call it what it is: schools squeeze parents for every dirham, then banks and insurers step in with “solutions” that lock families into years of repayments. It’s exploitation masquerading as opportunity. Meanwhile, the actual value proposition of school, which is preparing children for life and work, is actually weaker than ever.

Imagine if parents put that same Dh60,000 toward education that actually truly matters:

• Entrepreneurship programs.

• Tech bootcamps.

• Travel, languages, and cultural exposure.

• Mentorship, internships, real-world skills training.

  
  

That kind of investment would genuinely prepare kids for a rapidly changing world. Instead, families are mortgaging their futures for rote memorization, outdated textbooks, and inflated report cards.

My outrage isn’t just that families must borrow to keep kids in school. I am outraged because schools are charging luxury prices for a system that hasn’t evolved in over a century. We’re drowning in debt for an education model that doesn’t even deliver. It's time for parents to ask the hard question: Why are we paying so much for so little? And how can we do it better?