Education for girls came relatively late to Abu Dhabi, with schools already opened in Ras Al Khaimah and Sharjah in the 1950s. Records show that the first school for girls opened in the Emirate in the Autumn of 1963 and the first primary school, five years later, in 1968. By 1964 it is recorded that that Abu Dhabi was providing an education for 390 boys and 138 girls, employing 33 teachers and meaning that the average classroom size was a respectable 16 pupils.
This photograph was taken in the very early 1970s for our sister newspaper Al Ittihad. The exact date and the name of the school are not recorded, but the location is easy to work out. Since the fort still flies the flag of Abu Dhabi, it would have been before December 1971. With its backdrop of Qasr Al Hosn and - if you look closely in the top right corner - a small herd of camels, this playground would have been Hamdan Steeet near the corner with Airport Road, on the site now used for the annual Qasr Al Hosn Festival.
From their appearance, the teachers would appear all to be expatriates, perhaps teaching the girls a game from their own childhoods, many hundreds of miles away,
Maybe someone remembers the school, or even playing games in this sandy courtyard. If so, we would love to hear from you.
* James Langton
