Private school pupils in Dubai will enjoy a full week off for Eid Al Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan.
Education regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), announced the decision on Tuesday.
It means pupils will be off from Monday, May 2 to Friday, May 6, returning on Monday, May 9.
The move puts Dubai schools in line with most government and public sector workers, who have a nine-day holiday, including the weekends. Authorities in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are yet to confirm dates for private schools.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation said private sector employees are entitled to Saturday, April 30 until Shawwal 3 in the Islamic calendar.
This means the holiday will be from Saturday, April 30, and last until Tuesday, May 3 or Wednesday, May 4, depending on the start date of Eid and the sighting of the new moon.
It is up to private sector employers to decide if they wish to be closed for the remainder of the week, on Thursday and Friday, which some are expected to.
Rashmi Nandkeolyar, principal at Delhi Private School Dubai, said: "We are very excited. This is like a breath of calm after the storm of the pandemic.
"The excitement is that we finally get to have a break and with a new term for all of us, there is a sense of excitement in the air.
"But many of our pupils have board exams on, so many of us will be working through part of the break."
Indian curriculum CBSE exams started on Tuesday and close to 600 pupils will be sitting them at the school. Ms Nandkeolyar said some pupils may travel home for the break, but others may choose to stay in the UAE and enjoy the Eid celebrations here.
Companies opt to extend Eid break
Xylem, a global water technology company, decided to give its just over 100 employees in the UAE the entire week off for Eid.
Jennifer Gillespie, its director of human resources for Middle East and Turkey, said: "We were just sitting in a leadership team meeting today and as we discussed it my children's school Whatsapp messages started pinging to inform me that Dubai’s private schools had announced the week off. It aligned nicely but it did not form part of our decision making."
“If a leave falls on a weekend, we carry it forward in to the week so that was carried to Thursday. We all tend to work from home on a Friday so we decided that we would just give the full week off.
“It’s the end of Ramadan and people are super-tired. We recognise that and we just want people to have a good break with their families. Many of the team have already booked holidays."
While the extra day off on Thursday is a token of appreciation from the organisation, the day off on Friday will be deducted from employee’s leave balance, she said.
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Scoreline
Al Wasl 1 (Caio Canedo 90 1')
Al Ain 2 (Ismail Ahmed 3', Marcus Berg 50')
Red cards: Ismail Ahmed (Al Ain) 77'
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Company name: Play:Date
Launched: March 2017 on UAE Mother’s Day
Founder: Shamim Kassibawi
Based: Dubai with operations in the UAE and US
Sector: Tech
Size: 20 employees
Stage of funding: Seed
Investors: Three founders (two silent co-founders) and one venture capital fund
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Trade between the UAE and Russia reached Dh12.5 bn in 2018
More than 3,000 Russian companies are registered in the UAE
Around 40,000 Russians live in the UAE
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