When fuel hikes make the school bus a luxury
With fuel prices climbing yet again—two hikes so far this year, the latest on Oct. 17—parents across Egypt are feeling the squeeze in unexpected places. Annual school bus fees have surged past 20,000 Egyptian pounds (about $400), adding another strain to household budgets already stretched by rising living costs.
Over the past decade, Egypt’s gradual move to liberalize fuel prices has turned the morning school run into a financial ordeal. Each price adjustment ripples through the economy, and for many families, the impact lands squarely in the cost of getting their children to class. Parents say that in some cases, transport now eats up more than half of total tuition costs—a figure that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
For thousands of middle-income households, there is no real alternative. Long working hours make it impossible for many parents to drive their children themselves, while the lack of reliable public transport leaves few other options. What was once a routine service has become a mounting expense, another reminder that education in Egypt is no longer just about paying school fees—it’s about paying to reach the school gates at all.
How much is the bus this year?
At the start of the current academic year, many parents of private-school students were greeted with notices of higher annual bus fees; the latest fallout from Egypt’s rising fuel costs.
Maysaa Fahmy, a journalist, said the bus subscription at her son’s school near Remaya Square, only a few kilometers from their home in Haram, jumped to around 30,000 pounds, up from 24,000 last year.
In the same neighborhood, journalist Mohamed Farag received similar news. His daughters’ school informed parents that transport fees would climb from 16,000 to 22,000 pounds , a rise he called “impossible to justify” given the short distance involved.
Elsewhere in Cairo, families are facing comparable hikes. In Mohandeseen, pharmacist Ingy Samir said the annual bus fee at her daughters’ school rose from 18,000 to 22,000 pounds. In Maadi, homemaker, and mother of three Dina Tadros saw her costs jump from 21,000 to 25,000 pounds.
For parents like these, the numbers are more than line items. They are a reflection of how the country’s economic shifts continue to press the hardest on the middle class, forcing families to absorb costs that grow faster than their incomes.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/25886130/A hefty slice of education costs
The relentless climb in transport costs is rooted in Egypt’s wider economic overhaul. Under back-to-back reform programs agreed with the International Monetary Fund since 2016, the government in 2018 created an advisory committee to link domestic fuel prices to global benchmarks and the exchange rate. As the pound weakened, diesel rose steeply, driving up costs for everything from food delivery to the morning school run.
Official data show just how hard this shift has hit households. According to the latest available household income and expenditure survey, annual education spending accounts for about 4.5% of average per-capita consumption in 2019-2020, while transport exceeds that at 5.9%, even though fewer than one in five Egyptian children attends a fee-paying school.
For many parents, the numbers no longer add up. Bus fees now rival tuition itself. In Maadi, Dina Tadros said her family’s transport bill equals roughly 35% of her children’s annual tuition—about 70,000 pounds. In Giza, journalist Mohamed Farag calculates that the difference between tuition and bus fees for each of his daughters is barely 10,000 pounds. The margin is similarly tight for Maysaa Fahmy’s son: tuition runs about 45,000 pounds compared with 30,000 pounds for transport.
Since 2016 the IMF has argued that fuel-price liberalization makes economic sense, contending that broad energy subsidies disproportionately benefit the better-off and should be replaced by targeted assistance for the poorest. Yet for Egypt’s squeezed middle class, those theoretical gains feel remote.
Parents say school transport has become an inescapable expense, one they cannot trim without disrupting their working lives. “I only have one car and I take it to work,” Farag said. “Even if I can manage the morning drop-off, I can’t line up my hours with school dismissal.” Fahmy, who does not own a car, added: “Even if I did, it would be hard to leave work to make my son’s pick-up.”
It’s a familiar calculus in a country where people work an average of 2,236 hours a year—more than eight hours a day over a five-day week, according to International Labour Organization data—leaving little time, and ever-less money, for the simple act of getting their children to school.
Who oversees bus pricing?
Private schools say they are not immune to Egypt’s shifting economics. Bus fees, they argue, are calculated months in advance based on projected fuel costs and other operating expenses, and inevitably rise when those forecasts prove optimistic.
“Bus fees at school-owned fleets are set before the academic year based on expected operating costs, with fuel one of the main line items,” said Badawy Allam, head of the Private Schools Owners Association. Each school, he explained, drafts a budget and submits it to the local education directorate, which then reviews the cost-recovery gap that could justify an increase.
A 2018 directive issued by former education minister Tarek Shawki permits schools to raise transport fees by up to 25% a year, a threshold that, in practice, has become the norm. “That decision effectively opened the door to annual hikes of that magnitude,” Allam told Al Manassa.
Some schools, that outsource transport to private tourism or logistics companies, push the increases even further, he added. These arrangements, marketed as offering better service and newer vehicles, often come with higher price tags and fewer avenues for parental complaint.
But, for parents, the distinction offers little comfort. Whether the buses are school-run or subcontracted, the result is the same: a service once considered routine has become a luxury, shaped as much by global fuel markets as by local policy.
A parallel market on the move
For some families, the spiraling cost of school transport has forced a rethink. Journalist Maysaa Fahmy eventually gave up on her son’s school bus, hiring a private driver instead for 2,500 pounds a month—roughly 20,000 pounds a year. “It’s still high, but better,” she said. “Offers from private bus companies didn’t go below 3,000 pounds a month.”
The surge in bus subscriptions has fuelled a parallel market in student transport, ranging from independent drivers to ride-hailing apps that cater specifically to school runs. Prices fluctuate by distance and reliability, but some parents say they manage to save several thousand pounds a year by negotiating directly with drivers.
Official figures from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics show that more than 14,000 buses are licensed for school service, mostly in urban areas. Yet that number only captures part of the picture. There is no official count of unlicensed operators, who likely form a significant share of Egypt’s broader private-bus fleet—estimated at over 70,000 vehicles.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/25886199/The growing network of alternative transport services has created a new kind of competition—one not just over price, but comfort and reliability. “The school bus is expensive even though there’s no air conditioning!” said Maysaa Fahmy, who now hires a private driver instead.
Others have followed suit. Mohamed Farag now relies on a private car service for 1,500 pounds a month, while Ingy Samir pays 1,400 pounds —a fraction of the school’s own transport fees.
But not every parent is willing to take the risk. For Asmaa Ali, a lawyer and mother of two, the school bus remains worth the premium. “I can’t guarantee my daughter’s safety with independent drivers,” she said. “If the bus is late, the school bears responsibility—unlike with a private car.”
This month, the government pledged to freeze fuel prices for a year, offering a rare moment of relief. Parents hope that will prevent another wave of increases mid-year—or at least delay the next round of bus-fee hikes. For now, though, many are bracing for what has become an annual ritual: calculating not just the cost of education, but the cost of simply getting there.