“I’m Lovin’ it” – A Story About Greed vs Education

This is a true story about greed.

So this is a story about a young couple getting ready for their first child to enter the real world in one of the more prestigious nurseries in Kuwait, Bloomingdales. But as you will see, it turned out to be more of a gold-digging business than a nursery….Sharing their name with a department store in the US, Bloomingdales were supposedly to be one of the better nurseries in Kuwait.  So this family’s child is registered and his first installment is paid since early summer. But due to the Swine Flu dilemma everyone is facing, the school is not sure what is going on, just like all other nurseries, pre-schools, kindergarten and special needs schools. There has been rumours that the mentioned schools will be postponed until november, but nothing official. Back to the story at hand. So the mother gets a call from her child’s teacher telling her that…

school might be delayed due to swine flu. Therefore, your child might not be in classes until november, but either way you need to pay for that term (september-december) in full, even though your child might not attend a single day of classes! “Hmmmmm” the mother thought. So why do i have to pay now if he wont be coming to class?, inquired the mother. Teacher : “because WE (the teachers) are coming to school everyday.”

And so in shock, the mother asked when the deadline to pay was (it was september 13) and said goodbye and shut the phone. So basically she would have to pay the school for the teachers to attend, if the ministry kept it postponed until november. Nice one. What happened next? Well the childs parents decided to look around for other educational facilities because they had lost their sense of trust with this nursery.

So they decided to go and check out SuperKids in Yarmouk and try to enroll the kid there. I havent heard of them until very recently. After some research i found out that its a bilingual school with camera’s in each classroom, enabling parents to check on their children via internet from wherever they are. Which sounds pretty cool.

Its owned by young Kuwaiti entrepeneurs who want to educate children, in a safe and healthy environment. What are Superkids precautions for Swine Flu? Besides the classrooms being equipped with sanitizers and wipes like most schools; everyday before any child enters the nursery, he/she will be checked for their temperature at the door. If any one of them has a higher temperature than usual he/she will be immediately sent home. (as their parent/driver/nanny will be waiting) That way, Superkids will try and minimise the risk of it spreading.

The moral of the story : If you are making money, your business might hit some bumps down the line, but dont try and rip the consumer off because you might lose some valuable customers. Reputation is far more important than a couple of months losses in your end-of-year column.

Keep it real Superkids. Check out their interactive website here.

Dedicated to all of Kuwait’s beautiful children, may God bless them and protect them.

UPDATE : Nurseries, pre-schools, kindergarten and special needs institutions have been postponed and confirmed on November 30.

UPDATE 2 : It seems Bloomingdales has gone back on its decision to make the parents pay for tuition when their children are not attending. They have even gone out and handed out study work for the parents to help their kids until school resumes normally. This makes more sense, and im sure the parents will appreciate it.