Tuesday, Jan 08, 2013
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi needs to build 100 new schools in 8 years or face cute shortage in seats for pupils coming from low and middle-income earning families, according to Hamad Al Daheri, executive director for private schools and quality assnurace at the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Aadec).
He said the plan is to offer an extr 146,000 seats in the coming years to fulfill the educational needs, which is expected to double by 2020.
The investment needed for building more educational facilities has to come from the private sector according to the forecast. The Adec official promised that
Currently, Abu Dhabi has 185 private school offering education for more than 198,000 pupils or 60 per cent of schoolchildren in the emirate. Some of these schools are functioning over their capacity and there is a need to build schools that can take and additional 15,000 pupils annually to cater to growth in demand.
“We need to ensure that enough private schools are set up, and that they all adhere to Adec quality standards,” Al Daheri said.
Adec’s officials have been trying to enhance transparency in the sector and bridge the gap in information in order to entice more private investments in education.
The council will soon publish an annual report that will provide information about education demand, existing schools, pupil numbers and areas for investment, Al Daheri said.
The new investors should focus on offering quality education simply because 53 per cent of all parents consider education quality to be the most important criterion in selecting a school.
At present, 75 per cent of all current schools don’t meet Adec’s minimum standards
By Samihah Zaman Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
