Public Schools Cost BD1,771 per Pupil Each Year, Minister Tells MPs

Bahrain spends about BD1,770.71 a year on each student in public schools, the Education Minister Dr Mohammed bin Mubarak Juma told MPs on Tuesday, putting the 12-year cost per student at BD21,248.48.

He said the ministry uses three ways to calculate the figure. The first counts spending on items and services directly linked to the pupil, which he said is the method the ministry follows. A second method adds running costs, taking the yearly amount to about BD1,800 and the 12-year total to more than BD22,000. A third method counts the full education budget, including building schools and maintaining them, putting the annual cost at around BD2,000 and the 12-year total at roughly BD24,600.

Dr Juma rejected calls for fee-paying public schools, telling the chamber: ‘The idea of creating public schools that charge fees puts us in a constitutional breach, because the Constitution states that education is free in government institutions.’

On school buildings, he said there are 5,000 classrooms within full school facilities and 860 portable classrooms, making up 14 per cent of the total. He put the cost of building one portable classroom at about BD12,500, saying the units are now modular, air-conditioned and sound-insulated, rather than wooden as in the past. Maintenance costs average about BD1,200 each time, he said, with each unit maintained three times over an expected life of about 16 years.

The minister said portable classrooms date back to the 1980s, when there was no plan to meet demand for school space. He said a Cabinet-approved plan is now in place to build 18 schools across Bahrain, based on student density, alongside 23 academic buildings within existing schools that have spare capacity, to remove manufactured classrooms at those sites. He also referred to work to refurbish older and historic schools and return them to service.

Tenders are expected for four new schools either this month or early next month, he said, with two planned in Madinat Salman and two in East Hidd. Construction is due to begin in the first quarter of 2026, with completion within two years.

MP Mohammed Mousa argued that the figures point to pressure on families paying for private schooling, saying: ‘People who are forced to send their children to private schools end up paying that cost… We want model public schools with reasonable fees, sitting between public and private, run by the ministry, with fewer pupils than ordinary public schools.’