More schools in Dubai are looking at flexible education to help pupils gain real-life work experience or follow their dreams.
The Knowledge and Human Development Authority has seen a barrage of requests from schools with proposals to alter their current system and infuse innovation into school-life.
The Indian High School in Dubai announced in January that starting from April, 1,200 Grade 11-12 pupils will get a day and a half off every week to pursue hobbies.
The programme is part of Rahhal, the KHDA's personalised education initiative, which aims to provide an innovative alternative to mainstream education. The initiative is part of 10X, the Dubai Future Foundation’s plan to achieve 10 years’ worth of development over the next two years.
Hind Al Mualla, chief of creativity, happiness, and innovation at the KHDA said schools have been showing keen interest in taking a more unconventional approach to education.
The school regulators have received proposals aimed at younger grades, even pre-school and kindergarten.
"We received a lot of inquiries and requests from different schools with possibilities," she said.
"We want to empower and enable learners by letting them learn whatever they want to, wherever they want — learning does not have to happen in a classroom. This is an enabling platform where all sorts of innovation can take place.
The KHDA is also seeing a rise in interest from parents, and will be holding monthly open days so people can interact and generate ideas.
Ms Mualla believes schools can use Rahhal to infuse innovation into their daily practices.
She said that Indian High School is enabling high school pupils to get a menu of choices.
"Change is always good and one should not ignore new trends," said Rashmi Nandkeolyar, principal of Delhi Private School Dubai, which has signed up to the Rahhal initiative.
"Finland has shown that alternative methods of education do work. You can see the shift in education," she said.
"The fact that the KHDA and schools are looking at this is laudable.
Ron Hodkinson, principal of Ontario International Canadian School, said that if pupils have an interest and they are getting real-life experience, then the "benefits are huge".
"But, are they ready to make those decisions when they are 14?" he said.
"I give them (the Indian High School) credit for trying it and as educators, we have to evolve with our pupils.
He also said, however, that this sort of approach calls for caution as there are things to be considered, such as the fact that while some pupils need more social interaction others are more academically focused.
His school is working to personalise education in its own way — homework has been relabelled 'home learning' and every child is assigned individualised work based on areas where the pupil might be struggling.
Michael Worth, International Baccalaureate Career Programme Co-ordinator at Greenfield Community School, said he relished the chance to give children time off and currently has two pupils spending one day a week in a work placement.
"I have always wondered why we keep pupils at school for so many hours. They get exhausted and we keep feeding them information, but they need to get out of the classroom," he said.
Although his school is not planning to take part in flexible learning on the whole, they are hoping to make it work for individual pupils.
"The education map is changing dramatically. Universities and employers are requiring more life skills," he said.
"I think the programme is revolutionary and innovative — I applaud the Indian curriculum schools for looking at different ways.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
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RESULT
Manchester United 1 Brighton and Hove Albion 0
Man United: Dunk (66' og)
Man of the Match: Shane Duffy (Brighton)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
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Rating: 1/5
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Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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UAE
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Company%20Profile
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Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
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ENGLAND SQUAD
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'Young girls thinking of big ideas'
Words come easy for aspiring writer Afra Al Muhairb. The business side of books, on the other hand, is entirely foreign to the 16-year-old Emirati. So, she followed her father’s advice and enroled in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s summer entrepreneurship course at Abu Dhabi University hoping to pick up a few new skills.
“Most of us have this dream of opening a business,” said Afra, referring to her peers are “young girls thinking of big ideas.”
In the three-week class, pupils are challenged to come up with a business and develop an operational and marketing plan to support their idea. But, the learning goes far beyond sales and branding, said teacher Sonia Elhaj.
“It’s not only about starting up a business, it’s all the meta skills that goes with it -- building self confidence, communication,” said Ms Elhaj. “It’s a way to coach them and to harness ideas and to allow them to be creative. They are really hungry to do this and be heard. They are so happy to be actually doing something, to be engaged in creating something new, not only sitting and listening and getting new information and new knowledge. Now they are applying that knowledge.”
Afra’s team decided to focus their business idea on a restaurant modelled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Each level would have a different international cuisine and all the meat would be halal. The pupils thought of this after discussing a common problem they face when travelling abroad.
“Sometimes we find the struggle of finding halal food, so we just eat fish and cheese, so it’s hard for us to spend 20 days with fish and cheese,” said Afra. “So we made this tower so every person who comes – from Africa, from America – they will find the right food to eat.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
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