Background checks are being stepped up by Dubai's education regulator to ensure teachers with a criminal background cannot slip under the radar.
The Knowledge and Human Development Authority said candidates must now produce a 'good conduct' certificate from the countries in which they worked in the past five years.
Although individual schools have stipulated background checks already, the regulator said the five-year demand will be the standard requirement across the school network.
Without that, teachers will not pass through the necessary employment and visa checks.
"Teachers are in contact with minors and we don’t want the wrong people to be in contact with children,” said Dr Naji Al Mahdi, chief of qualifications and awards.
"Someone like a paedophile will find a place where they can come in contact with children. In all developed countries, you have to go for a police check before you join a school. No adult is allowed to go into a school unless they have been vetted.
"We are strengthening this. We are improving the system of checks on our teachers. We need just as good protection for our children as any developed country.
"While earlier, when someone had to join as a teacher from country X, they only needed a local good conduct certificate. Now, we are demanding that they get the certificate from the countries they have been working in in the last five years."
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Dr Al Mahdi said schools and the authorities are well aware that teachers who have either been struck from the professional register or convicted of an offence in another country may try to find work here.
"We want to know if they were okay in the country of origin or the country where they were working before they came here," he said.
"When you are dealing with children, of course you will need a check. The protection comes from knowing you have a clean history."
"If you want to be a teacher, you must have a good conduct."
In April, the government suspended plans to require all new residents to present evidence that they had never been convicted of a crime in the past five years in order to secure a visa.
Businesses had complained that they were unable to process visas properly, particularly from applicants who had lived in different countries in recent years. They would have been required to contact police forces or authorities in each of those countries and secure documents proving they had no convictions.
But many public sector organisations and private companies continue to stipulate that new employees do so anyway, for their own records.
David Hicks, founding principal of Dubai International Academy - Al Barsha, said most schools already carefully check their teachers' backgrounds.
"Most schools [have adopted] these checks in recent years. They are adopting safer recruitment practices,” said Mr Hicks.
He said "parents will feel much more secure and comfortable that the people in charge of their children have these certificates".
"This is the case almost always, but there have been cases both here and overseas when less scrupulous individuals have gotten through the net."
Brendon Fulton, principal of Dubai British School in Emirates Hills, said some schools, including his own, even require volunteers to secure good conduct certificates from Dubai Police.
"Parents will have peace of mind that people coming to work at the school don’t have criminal records," he said.
Jeff Evans, from Learning Key Education Consultancy, said the best schools also look for black marks on teachers' careers - criminal or otherwise.
"It's not only whether they have been convicted of a criminal offences, it's about making sure they’re suitable and safe to work with children," he said.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: SmartCrowd
Started: 2018
Founder: Siddiq Farid and Musfique Ahmed
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Sector: FinTech / PropTech
Initial investment: $650,000
Current number of staff: 35
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Various institutional investors and notable angel investors (500 MENA, Shurooq, Mada, Seedstar, Tricap)
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Dooda Solutions
Based: Lebanon
Founder: Nada Ghanem
Sector: AgriTech
Total funding: $300,000 in equity-free funding
Number of employees: 11
The bio
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The years Ramadan fell in May
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE athletes heading to Paris 2024
Equestrian
Abdullah Humaid Al Muhairi, Abdullah Al Marri, Omar Al Marzooqi, Salem Al Suwaidi, and Ali Al Karbi (four to be selected).
Judo
Men: Narmandakh Bayanmunkh (66kg), Nugzari Tatalashvili (81kg), Aram Grigorian (90kg), Dzhafar Kostoev (100kg), Magomedomar Magomedomarov (+100kg); women's Khorloodoi Bishrelt (52kg).
Cycling
Safia Al Sayegh (women's road race).
Swimming
Men: Yousef Rashid Al Matroushi (100m freestyle); women: Maha Abdullah Al Shehi (200m freestyle).
Athletics
Maryam Mohammed Al Farsi (women's 100 metres).
Company Profile
Name: Direct Debit System
Started: Sept 2017
Based: UAE with a subsidiary in the UK
Industry: FinTech
Funding: Undisclosed
Investors: Elaine Jones
Number of employees: 8
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