Five new schools overcame a series of hurdles to open in Dubai this month.
From delays in construction to shipments arriving late, headteachers tell of challenges that they faced to get schools ready during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Attracting new pupils in the world's most crowded international school market, signing them up without tours and giving pupils the option to study from home added to the burden.
So how did they do it?
“Opening a school in a pandemic is like building a plane while you're flying it," said Adrianna Chestnut, principal at Bright Learners Private School, a new American school in Rashidiya.
We just said we'd go through the storm and come out on the other side
"There is no road map or precedent of school that has done this before. With the pandemic, rules and regulations keep changing."
Bright Learners, which adapted a former government school building, charges fees of Dh22,750 at pre-kindergarten to Dh35,750 for Grade 12, putting it in the affordable to middle-tier category of schools.
As with most new schools, it has opened at low capacity and limited classes to pre-kindergarten up to grade 4. It expects 30 to 50 pupils to start on September 13, although once full it could hold about 2,000.
“When stay-home orders came into place we were not able to complete construction on the building, due to social-distancing regulations. We also had delays in shipments," Ms Chestnut said.
“But from construction to completion is about a three-year process in Dubai. There were lots of things already in motion prior to Covid-19 hitting."
Ms Chestnut, who has taught in Ohio and worked in Abu Dhabi schools, first arrived as the scale of the outbreak became clear in late March.
"At that point of time, we just said we'd go through the storm and come out on the other side," she said.
Drawing in parents and recruiting teachers, proved a challenge, but the size of the campus, classes of only 10 pupils and its affordable pricing helped.
From day one, teachers understand the need to provide mental health and emotional support to pupils who have been at home for six months.
Salary cuts and job losses mean many parents "need something that is affordable without sacrificing the quality of education".
Pearl Wisdom School, in the Abu Hail district of Deira, faced another challenge. Although it opened its doors to pupils for the first time this week, it began e-learning in April, when the Indian CBSE curriculum year begins.
Sooraj Ramachandran, director at the school, said lessons begin on April 13 – in the middle of Dubai's lockdown – although that was lifted on April 24.
As with Bright Learners, it has capacity to enrol 2,300 but aimed for a limited launch.
“We expected about 200 pupils to join in the first year," he said.
"But, as we opened the school, the stay-at-home measures came into place and families could not come to the school. Our opening was quite eventful."
This month, 30 children will attend in-person classes and a further 45 will continue e-learning from home. The school has only opened kindergarten to Grade 5, with class sizes of five or six.
“The admissions were done entirely virtually and we could not be at the school. The pupils could not see the classrooms and they only met the teachers virtually."
Despite the challenges and need to attract new pupils, Mr Ramachandran was optimistic about the future.
Pearl Wisdom's owner, Bhavans Middle East, runs nine schools in the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain.
"If we did not open we would lose a year," he said.
Fees range from Dh14,500 in kindergarten to Dh16,500 in Grade 5, making it affordable for many families. Pupils who joined in their first year received a 15 per cent discount.
The other schools to open this month are Al Ghaf Primary, a British curriculum school in Jebel Ali, and Vernus International School, which follows American curriculum and is in Silicon Oasis.
On Tuesday, the fifth school, Chinese School Dubai, welcomed pupils for the first time to its Mirdif campus.
Unusually, it is a publicly-owned school linked to China's state-run school system and the only one of its kind outside China.
At full capacity it could accommodate about 2,000 pupils.
"We welcome the opening of the first Chinese public school outside China in Dubai as a step that reflects the depth and strength of the ties of friendship," said Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed, who attended the opening.
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.”
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
