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Manar Al Iman Charity Private School, Al Jurf -The Review
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Manar Al Iman Charity Private School, Al Jurf -The Review

by Jon WestleyApril 4, 2018

Manar Al Iman Charity Private School – SchoolsCompared.com April 2018 exclusive First Review

Image highlighting the role played by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum in uniting his government behind the Year of Giving in the UAE in 2017 and the resulting investment in Manar Al Iman Charity Private School

Background and location

Opened in 1984 to cater for just 30 underprivileged children by H.H. Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ajman, the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School is today a 2,050 capacity MOE curriculum school operating in two shifts to educate some 4,100 disadvantaged and underprivileged boys and girls, many of whom are orphans, between the ages of 3 and 16 years of age, free of all costs to their families. The school is situated in the Al Jurf area in Ajman within the main Al Zahra School Zone.

Map showing the location of Manar Al Iman Charity Private School in Ajman

 

Charitable ambitions

Image of the entrance and main school buildings of the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School in Ajman

GEMS_INARTICLE  

The Manar Al Iman Charity Private School was subject in 2017-18 to extensive modernisation and renovation as a flagship recipient of the UAE Tarmeem project that links public and private sectors in charitably investing as part of the 2017 Year of Giving mandate by the UAE government. The school was refurbished in 2017-18 over an intensive month-long project engaging more than four hundred volunteers, including students of the school themselves, and 28 public and private sector partners.

Since the school’s launch, it has become a focus for ensuring that refugees fleeing from Syria and Yemen, as well as many underprivileged families from the UAE, can access high quality education. Today the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School educates over 500 orphans and more than 1500 young refugees from Syria and Yemen.

We often on SchoolsCompared.com celebrate those schools which offer bursaries and scholarships and, regretfully, the number of premium schools doing so remains lamentably low. There is perhaps no better example of the unmet need for bursaries and scholarships than that provided by the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School, a school currently significantly oversubscribed.

More on the extensive number of charity schools that operate in the UAE can be found in an article by our sister site, WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, here. The Year of Giving, in Dubai alone, raised over Dh1.6 billion through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and programmes, and private and public sector and individual donations.

Facilities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyb9c7PG1ww

As of 2018, a school in a historical state of disrepair has now been completely, and beautifully, transformed.

Facilities now include fully equipped separate play areas for younger girls and boys; separate girls and boys’ Science Labs;  60+ classrooms divided between infant, girls, boys and senior sections (22 fully restored) with approx 35 children per classroom, extensive interior and exterior murals to provide warmth; Main school reception and meeting point for parents; indoor sports hall; crèche; Clinic; school library, new air-conditioning throughout – all the basics are now in place to provide a happy education for children – and the finishing of the school, rich use of colours and attention to detail (including safe flooring) shines through.

Do not expect swimming pools and black box theatres. to do so probably misses the point. We do think that there is scope here, as for charitable schools across the Emirates, for partnerships with other schools to share facilities …..

Private sector donors

In this special case we think it appropriate to recognise those public and private sector companies, individuals, organisations and charities that have generously invested in Manar Al Iman Charity Private School as part of its refurbishment to date.  These include Omniyat Properties; BASF; ATELIER N5; MTE Middle East General Trading; Emma Paine; Manser Saxon Dubai; Celer Group; Interni; Optimum; JML Facades; Clarke Samadhin Associates; Plafond Fit Out; Marwan Ali; Furniture Factory; Complete Building Supplies; Stephanie Neville; Transguard Group; NASS Scafform Services; Academia Management Solutions International; Dubai Economy (Dubai Department of Economic Development); Graphics Hub LLC; Omnicom Media Group MENA; Omniyat; Premier Irrigation and Landscaping; Jotun; J20 Sports; Al Garhoud Private Hospital; Careers Coaching Development; Falcon Pack; Shamsa Alabbar; Dubai Cares; Gulf4Good; and artist Saji Kumar.

The SchoolsCompared.com Bottom line

“Schools such as the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School one do a wonderful and important thing in educating orphans and children from low-income families. These centres of education are vital for the growth of future generations.”

Mahdi Amjad, Executive, Chairman and CEO, Omniyat

The audience for this school are disadvantaged families and we have included it for three reasons. First, what has been achieved highlights ways in which the private sector can inspirationally transform the lives of children. Second, we think that there is scope for the non-charitable schools we generally review on our site to engage better with charitable schools and share facilities and expertise. We would certainly be interested to hear from schools that have set up partnerships and exchanges with charity schools. Finally, if inspiration was needed, the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School highlights the very real impact an expansion of scholarship and bursary provision could have, if implemented by all schools across the UAE.

It is unfortunate that currently Ajman does not provide published school inspection reports for its schools. We have no doubt that the impact of the refurbishment of Manar Al Iman Charity Private School on its children, and families, will have been no less than profound.

© SchoolsCompared.com 2018

Details to consider
2016/17 Overall ADEC / KHDA Rating

At present Ajman has no published school inspection reports made available to parents

2015/16 Overall KHDA / ADEC Rating

At present Ajman has no published school inspection reports made available to parents

Type of school

Charitable
Notes:
(1) the school received no government funding and is wholly dependent on sponsorship, donations and charitable giving

Full WSA Review

Coming soon

Average Cost Per Year

GRADE 1: free/charitable
GRADE 2: free/charitable
GRADE 3: free/charitable
GRADE 4: free/charitable
GRADE 5: free/charitable
GRADE 6: free/charitable
GRADE 7: free/charitable
GRADE 8: free/charitable
GRADE 9: free/charitable
GRADE 10: free/charitable
GRADE 11: free/charitable
GRADE 12: free/charitable

Curriculum

Ministry of Education [MOE] Grade 12

External Exam Boards

MOE

Selective

Fully academically and culturally inclusive

Waiting list

Yes

Value Added

Not published

Number of Students

2050 capacity
Notes:
(1) 3,500+ students educated in two shifts (April 2018)
(2) Total capacity based on 2 shifts: 4100

Teacher to Student Ratio

1:13
Notes
(1) Average class size: 35 students

Largest nationality teachers

Arabic

Teacher turnover

Not published

Year opened

1984

Location

Al Zahra School Zone, Al Jurf

Student composition

Arabic (largest nationality)
Notes:
(1) 36+ nationalities
(2) large representation of refugee Syrian and Yemeni children
(3) large representation of children from Bidoon and low-income guest worker families.

Gender

Boys and girls
Notes:
(1) 2 shifts

Owner

Founded by H.H. Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid Al Nuaimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ajman
Notes:
(1) Board of Directors presided over by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Ali Al Nuaimi
(2) Saeed Al Balushi, Executive Director

Admissions Telephone

+971 (0) 6 743 3899
+971 (0) 6 743 4545
Notes:
(1) Fax: +971 (0) 6 743 5554

Web Address

None

Strengths

• Hugely warm school with strong family and community links
• High standard of finish
• Culture of kindness
• Pubic and private sector governance

Weaknesses

• Heavily over-subscribed
• Children would benefit from broader links with other schools in terms of facility sharing and co-investment in their education
• No school web site

Rating
User Rating
Rate Here
Academic
A-
Value
A
ExtraCurricula
B-
Languages
B-
Sports
A-
Arts & Drama
B+
Teaching
B+
Communications
A-
Warmth
A-
Differentiation
A-
SEND Provision
B+
Scl Community
B+
Scl Facilities
A+
Opportunities

• Hugely inspirational school that stands as a flagship example of what can be achieved through public and private sector investment and partnership. It is telling, however, that of all the forty plus partners engaged in the refurbishment of the school not a single school outside the charitable sector was engaged and we think that there is room to broaden inter-school partnerships with charitable schools across the UAE as well as to expand the provision of scholarships and bursaries in all schools to meet very clear demand.

A-
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About The Author
Jon Westley
Jon Westley is the Editor of SchoolsCompared.com and WhichSchoolAdvisor.com UK. You can email him at jonathanwestley [at] schoolscompared.com

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