ABU DHABI // The 21st Century Private Academy has been plagued by problems since it opened in 2010, according to inspection reports published on the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s website.
It opened with 1,330 pupils in a building that was about 30 years old and “in need of considerable upgrading”, according to inspectors. “The buildings are leased from Adec by the proprietor,” the report said, and architectural drawings for a proposed new school building had been submitted to Adec for approval.
In its first year of operations, it changed its principal four times. Teachers’ monthly salaries were listed as between Dh3,500 to Dh5,000, according to the 2013 report, the last time inspectors noted salaries in their assessments.
In the three times the school was inspected from 2013 to this year, it consistently earned one of the lowest grades, Band C, Grade 6, or “unsatisfactory” and “in need of significant improvement”. The school had 2,055 pupils when it was last inspected in April. Tuition was reported to be between Dh4,300 to Dh6,700, according to the 2015 report.
“There is rubble in the courtyard and under stairwells and the prayer room has peeling paint,” inspectors wrote in the 2015 report. “Uneven paving across the whole school presents trip hazards. Chemicals in the science laboratory have not been locked securely and hanging leads from ovens in the technology room are a potential danger.
“The school’s toilets are poorly maintained. They are a health hazard for those who use them regularly; some students avoid using them because of their unhygienic state.”
The quality of teaching was also noted to be “unsatisfactory” and the school’s management team’s performance was “unsatisfactory because they have exerted only very limited influence in improving teaching, learning, accommodation and resources since the last inspection”.
“Governance arrangements are weak.”
Parents said they recognised the school was in need of improvement, but that they could not afford to send their children elsewhere.
“We are not that satisfied when it comes to education, because sometimes, they lack teachers and sometimes, the teachers come and go because of the visa problems,” said D P, a mother of three pupils at the school. “We have no options for the Filipino schools. That is the nearest Filipino school here. The two other Filipino schools are in Baniyas and they are also fully booked and they are already full.”
L R, who has two children at the school, said parents were not offered an official reason for the closure.
“But maybe the reason Adec closed it was due to its poor performance because of the operator,” said L R, who paid Dh6,000 in fees toward her children’s education.
rpennington@thenational.ae
