ABU DHABI, 21 Nov, 04 (WAM) - The Minister of Education, Shaikh Nahyanbin Mubarak Al Nahyan, will hold a meeting with senior officials at theministry today.

The meeting will review many proposals regarding the Spring break, andmake up for the missed classes when all schools nationwide remained closedduring the mourning period of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan,according to a report in +Khaleej Times.+The officials at the stry are looking to coordinate with those of EducationMinistry to unify the holidays of government, private schools and theuniversities. Sources of senior officials at the ministry said they hadsuggested three proposals of which one is take out five minutes from eachperiod during every school day to design a separate period at the endof the school day. The second proposal is to let schools remain open onThursdays, and for a limited period, while the third proposal calls fortaking advantage of the extra-curricular activities periods, and set themfor teaching the students the lessons they missed. The sources , howeverruled out the shortening of the spring break for a week instead of two.

A number of senior officials at the Ministry of education upheld theshortening of the spring break, but pointed out that the proposal wouldbe tabled before Sheikh Nahyan today. What is applicable to the institutionsof Higher education would be applicable to the schools, the sources said.

Authoritative sources at the Ministry of Higher Education and HigherColleges of Technology said that making up for the missed classed hadnot been decided yet, and would rather be approved at today's meeting.

The meeting would give the go-ahead for either extending the academicyear for a week's time or utilise the Thursdays every week.

Meanwhile, Dr Jamal Al Mohiri, undersecretary of the Ministry of Educationand Youth would review at an extensive meeting with Shaikh Nahyan binMubarak all the functions and powers of the former minister in order toauthorise him (the undersecretary) to practice some powers and delegateother powers to Shaikh Nahyan.

The Ministry of Education is making arrangements at present for countingall the rules and regulations, which were issued since 2000 until today.

The ministry is also planning to design official letterhead papers, changethe form of the General Secondary School Certificate. The new amendmentwill be the Ministry of Education, instead of the Ministry of Educationand Youth.