Heads of various private school groups in Dubai have expressed their readiness to reopen school campuses in September, following the summer holidays.

An official re-opening date is yet to be announced by the UAE Ministry of Education and the private school regulators of various Emirates. However, school heads said it is a 'socially and economically imperative for the UAE' to re-open school campuses, by keeping the health and safety of children at paramount importance.

In a virtual press meet organised by the Education Business Group, a recently - formed group that represents 100 private schools in Dubai, various heads of private school groups have said they are looking to adopt new operational methods. This includes the use of a 'blended learning' strategy and stringent sanitisation procedures to ensure child safety once schools re-open.

Blended learning is a practice of allowing some students to come into schools during the week while others continue distance education, thus reducing the number of students on-campus during a given time.

Schools groups such as GEMS Education have already created a 'risk assessment document', and the Taaleem group of schools are also in the process of creating their own set of guidelines to manage school education in a post-pandemic world.

Kalthoom Ali, a committee member of the Education Business Group, said, "We are all committed to providing high-quality education, be in online distance learning or through blended learning. We are facing challenges, and some of them, we will try to overcome by sharing our best practices."

Alan Williamson, the CEO of Taaleem said UAE is in a very advantageous position for re-opening in September as it can watch and learn re-opening and safety methodologies adopted by other countries including the UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

"The UAE has taken rapid and swift decisions and transformed our schools in a week by adopting digital learning. Now, we are ready to transform back into the new norm," said Williamson.

The past few months have been economically challenging for schools, and have appealed for support from the government of UAE, said a few panellists.

Ajay Makani, the director of Fortes Education, said, "We would like flexibility from the government in choosing our operation model, flexibility in our HR practices from MOHRE, and fiscal support. We require a little bit of regulation in terms of whether it is mandatory in asking our parents to pay fees."

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

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