Abu Dhabi opens 14 new schools for 18,000 pupils

ABU DHABI // Education chiefs in Abu Dhabi have launched 14 new private schools with places for 18,000 pupils.

Officials at Abu Dhabi Education Council say the increased capacity will help to meet a surge in demand for school places.

The National reported on Tuesday that schools were struggling to cope with an increase in pupil numbers caused by an expanding workforce and a decree requiring local government staff to live in the emirate. One kindergarten had 700 applications for 88 places.

Several schools say they are full or nearly full and waiting lists are now common, especially for primary schools.

Hamad Al Dhaheri of Adec said there was a strategy in place to cope with growing demand. “Our team has been flexible with investors regarding the allocation of school plots and licensing and accreditation, which has in return increased the number of investments for private schools,” he said.

“We are in the process of introducing 18 new private schools, some of which are currently being designed or under construction. These schools will accommodate 20,000 students and offer diverse options for parents.”

Adec estimates the pupil population is growing at a rate of about 7 per cent a year and is expected to reach 280,000 by 2020.

Critics say capacity is not increasing quickly enough, and they want the regulator to loosen its restrictions on school expansions and make it easier for operators to obtain licences and land for new schools.

Adec turned down an application for new classrooms at Al Adhwa Private School in Al Ain. “We hoped, but they don’t approve for us at all, even to add one wall, it’s not allowed,” said Hoda Itawi, the vice principal.

“If you are strict to this extreme, it doesn’t work. The flexibility should be there because you can’t fix the problem by saying, ‘Everything is not allowed, it’s forbidden, it’s not approved, it’s this penalty, this fine’. Parents will suffer in the end.”

Richard Siler, a former Adec employee who is now a school principal, said Adec had been let down in the past by disreputable school operators, but was now over-regulating to the extent that the pendulum had swung too far in the other direction.

“Adec – not just Adec, the Ministry of Education – were fooled by school developers for too long, so they are absolutely tired of being fooled. In that case, I am defending them, but that has led to significant over-regulation,” he said.

“It’s extremely difficult for a developer … to get permission for a piece of land because they’re demanding these very high-quality applications. And I mean, just an application, people can pay Dh1 million for just an application.”

Mr Siler said he supported Adec’s role in ensuring that schools were not “fly-by-night operations”, but said the bureaucracy and costs of opening new schools were discouraging operators.

“To build one of these facilities, they won’t allow anything other than purpose-built any more, and to develop a purpose-built school is a two-year undertaking,” he said.

“We have the requirement for purpose-built facilities and quality facilities and people are just not stepping up to do it. It’s expensive to build a quality school. It’s not a light undertaking by an investor.”