Abu Dhabi school trips and activities affected by Adec policy

School pupils take part in a swimming competition in Abu Dhabi. Such activities need proper scrutiny, says Adec. Jaime Puebla / The National

ABU DHABI // Private school pupils are missing out on trips and visits from speakers because of rules on activities, parents and teachers say.

The rules, issued by the Abu Dhabi Education Council on January 22, require private schools to give Adec nine weeks’ notice to approve field trips or guest visits.

Parents and school administrators say that the rules are too stringent and have led to events and guest visits being cancelled.

“A lot of sports have been cancelled,” said the principal of one international school, who asked not to be identified.

“Teams that had been practising for weeks weren’t allowed to play other schools because approvals hadn’t gone through.

“I’ve had musicians come through. We didn’t have 45 days to obtain the approvals so we had to turn down the opportunity.”

Schools must give Adec detail any activity outside school grounds, pupils who will attend, whether it is obligatory and whether it is for leisure or education.

They must also provide Adec with a risk analysis and detail safety precautions to be taken.

The policy also applies to visitors such as speakers, artists or authors.

Adec must be given guest speakers’ passport information and details of their visit before they are allowed to enter the school.

The policy advises against taking pupils to shopping malls, as “there are no goals for these visits”.

Adec’s private schools and quality assurance division said it was enforcing the policy because schools “running after-school activities or activities using external providers” were “ignoring Adec’s published regulations”.

The principal said he understood Adec was trying to ensure pupils’ safety, but schools already had their own security protocols in place.

“I think that we should be self policing,” he said. “In most countries they don’t have this type of thing where they have to seek approval from the local education authority.

“I guess the problem comes in when you have over 200 schools who maybe do about 30 different activities a week, which would not be out of the ordinary.

“I don’t think they have the manpower to actually scrutinise these documents as they should be.

“If we’re going to have to jump through all these hoops and get all this paperwork done, then somebody has to go through it in a timely fashion and give approvals in a way that allows us to take advantage of the opportunities.”

The principal said many activities had to be cancelled because Adec’s authorisation did not come through in time.

A vice principal at another private school said the change caught schools off guard.

“The dissipation of the information led to some confusion because it wasn’t quite specific,” the vice principal said.

“Of course, people have their own interpretations of this and what designates an after-school activity. It’s not definitive because they haven’t given examples.”

The mother of a Grade 4 pupil said she was upset that her daughter’s swimming competition was cancelled because of this new policy.

“I think every parent I’ve talked to thinks that it’s completely ridiculous and we’re hoping that it will be changed by September, because it makes you question in a sense why you’re here if your kids can’t participate in after-school activities,” said P S, a British national.

Adec’s private schools division said it has not cancelled any activities.

“We informed parents that activities are never cancelled by Adec, and we have issued hundreds of approvals to schools on running such activities conducted by school staff,” it said.