EXPO 2020 DUBAI CLOSING CEREMONY, RAMADAN 2022 IN UAE, UKRAINE, YALE FRAUD, DUBAI SCHOOL FEES, AND SPRING BREAK… WHAT MADE THE NEWS FOR SCHOOLS, PARENTS AND STUDENTS IN EDUCATION THIS WEEK
Tabitha Barda’s The Schools Report brings you the SchoolsCompared.com official Weekly Briefing on the Hottest News in Education.
Every Friday we bring you the latest stories in education in the UAE and around the world in the last 7 days. Here’s what’s been happening this week…
This Week in Education. UAE Education News. First. Every Friday. Only from SchoolsCompared.com.
Schools, parents and students bid an emotional goodbye to Expo 2020 Dubai
Schools, parents and pupils have bid an emotional goodbye to Expo 2020 Dubai, after six months of incredible inspiration, dream-weaving and pure magic.
More than 500,000 school students visited Expo 2020, with all UAE school being given free entry tickets. Having the opportunity to take part in such a historic, world-class event will be a memory that most UAE students will never forget.
And of course the end of it could be nothing less than sensational. Expo 2020 Dubai official ended on 31st March 2022 with a spectacular Closing Ceremony at Al Wasl Plaza, home to the world’s largest 360-degree projection surface, exactly 182 days after the Opening Ceremony that brought the world to the UAE for a celebration ten years in the making.
Global music icons Christina Aguilera, Norah Jones and Yo-Yo Ma headlined – with 22 giant screens across the Expo 2020 Dubai site and Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre.
The cast of the Closing Ceremony included more than 400 professionals and volunteers from 56 countries,
A landmark part of the Ceremony included a tribute to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
As Expo 2020 concludes, His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence and Commissioner General of Expo 2020 Dubai, hands the BIE Flag to His Excellency Ambassador Jai-chul Choi, President of the General Assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) before its being passed to the leadership of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai.
See the spectacular Closing Ceremony in full.
Ramadan 2022 in UAE: How school Ramadan hours will change with the new working 4.5-day week
Ramadan is due to start in just a day or two, and there’s been much debate on what the new 4.5- day working week means for school hours during the Holy Month.
The UAE’s Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation has instructed the private sector to reduce its workday by two hours daily – and this has historically meant that private schools quickly follow in reducing the school day.
However, although traditionally schools cut their timings down from being open seven hours per day to five hours per day during Ramadan, the new half-day on Friday – following the UAE’s introduction of the 4.5-day working week for government departments, which was adopted by all UAE schools – means that the school “day” is set to become just around three hours on a Friday.
Parental reactions to this have been mixed. Read more.
100% Free School Fees for displaced Ukrainian children offered by premium UAE online school Minerva’s Virtual Academy
Premium British curriculum online school Minerva’s Virtual Academy, which has recently launched in the UAE, is offering free, full-time private education to teenagers displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The UK-based Minerva’s Virtual Academy says it will offer places at its Tier 1, British-curriculum online school free of charge for a number of young people between the ages of 13 and 15. School fees will be reduced by 100% so that no charge whatsoever is payable by distressed Ukrainian families with children fleeing to the UAE from Ukraine.
The school will make places available to 10 children from Ukraine – 5 in Year 9 and 5 in Year 10 – who will receive full-time teaching in up to nine subjects as well as one-to-one mentoring, wellbeing and, crucially, mental health support.
Find out more about this and other ways institutions are trying to help Ukrainian children continue their education.
UAE education trend watch: More international students choosing Dubai for university over UK and US Competition in Higher Education sector
International higher education institutions in Dubai reported significant growth in student numbers, according to new data revealed by Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).
Dubai’s international higher education institutions reported annual enrolment growth of 3.6 per cent, with more than 29,000 students currently enrolled in university programmes.
Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of KHDA said, “Dubai continues to strengthen its position as a leading international study destination. The growth and diversity in programme choices offered by international universities in the emirate, and the sustained growth in international student enrolment highlights Dubai’s ability to consistently deliver high-quality education and builds on our commitment to create better education choices that offer families and investors new possibilities.”
The surge in student numbers at international higher education institutions is largely driven by an increase in international students travelling to Dubai for better higher education choices. Dubai is currently home to 34 international higher education institutions that provide more than 600 programmes, with one in four students coming from outside the UAE (28%).
Yale University fraudster stole $40 million from school to fund her lavish lifestyle
A Yale University School of Medicine employee has admitted to stealing $40 million worth of electronic equipment from the institution. She sold the electronics for money, which she used to fund a lavish lifestyle, including a fleet of luxury cars, multiple homes and five-star travel.
Former director of finance and administration for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale, 42-year-old Jamie Petrone, pleaded guilty this week in court in the US to two counts of wire fraud and a tax offense for her role in the plot.
Over the course of eight years Petrone abused her position at Yale University – in particular the power she was entrusted with to make and authorize certain purchases for the department, as long as the amount was below $10,000.
Petrone would order computers and other electronics (amounting to thousands of items over the years), from Yale vendors using the Yale School of Medicine’s money. She would then ship the expensive items to a third-party business in New York, in exchange for money once the goods were resold.
She then splurged the stolen money in order to live a glamorous lifestyle, including buying designer handbags, real estate and cars. At the time of her guilty pleas, she was in possession of two Mercedes-Benz vehicles, two Cadillac Escalades, a Dodge Charger and a Range Rover.
Her swindle was finally up when Yale received an anonymous tip about the suspiciously high volume of electronic equipment she was purchasing, some of which she was loading into her own private car.
US authorities say the loss to Yale amounts to $40,504,200. Read more.
New UK ruling means School Week must be minimum of 32.5 hours
Schools in England will now have to offer a minimum school week of 32.5 hours as part of a package of reforms aimed at raising standards.
Most schools already deliver a 32.5 hour school week, which is equivalent to 8.45am to 3.15pm from Monday to Friday. However, the UK government believes there are discrepancies across the country, since 20 minutes less teaching time a day equates to a loss of two weeks of schooling a year.
However, teaching unions said they were “unconvinced by the benefits” of introducing a minimum length for school weeks.
Experts have pointed out that it is important to understand the reasons why some schools might have fewer hours – for example, some rural schools may choose start and finish times to suit transport arrangements – and urged the government not to rush any changes.
UAE school leaders and teachers are sure to be able to empathise, following the need to adapt the school week to fit the new weekend format, introduced on 1 January 2022, which saw UAE schools switching from a 5-day working week to a 4.5-day working week.
Schools in Dubai tighten budgets due to tuition fee freeze
After SchoolsCompared.com published the exclusive report, ‘Dubai School Fees are Frozen for Another Year – But at What Cost?’, news outlet The National has followed up on the theme this week with a story on how savvy schools now need to be with their budgets as costs rise.
At the beginning of this month Dubai school regulator the KHDA announced that fees at private schools in Dubai would not be increased for academic year 2022-2023, making it the third year in a row schools have been prevented from raising fees.
However, as the price of fuel increases and worldwide shipping costs continue to rise sharply, school leaders said procuring materials such as sanitisers, books and furniture was more expensive than ever, The National reports:
“Operating costs are definitely on the rise, especially in the past two years due to the Covid-19 situation,” Zahid Sarosh, chief executive of Focal Point Management Consultancy, told The National.
“We’re seeing increased expenses in the procurement of stationery, books, uniforms, and most of all in the fuel prices that have seen a consistent hike for quite some time now.
“There have been increased costs with respect to the procurement of materials required by regulation for health and hygiene and to prevent the spread of the virus, such as sanitisers, dispensers, masks, gloves, and also monitoring equipment, like infrared thermometers and kiosks.”
Mr Sarosh said many schools would have planned to increase the salaries of teachers and staff because they had not received any raises in the past couple of years owing to the pandemic.
“This particular area will be difficult to implement [with the freeze], since employee compensation is one of the largest expense categories for schools,” he said.
“Annual events, staff away days and employee engagement programmes, along with bonuses, are some of the areas that will also be affected due to budget cuts.
While he can understand why parents would welcome the fee freeze, Mr Sarosh said it could affect school development, which will have a bearing on pupils.
“Education should never be stagnant and schools should employ an approach of continuous improvement in all areas,” he said.
“Appropriate funding is definitely needed for any enhancement in these areas.
“Even if it’s not a large fee raise, a modest one will allow the schools to take small steps to improve continuously.”
Schools in Dubai tighten budgets due to tuition fee freeze (thenationalnews.com)
UAE: 85% of students felt able to complete schoolwork on their own during Covid, shows new survey
Most students in the UAE (85 per cent) felt confident about completing schoolwork independently during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new global study.
The Responses to Educational Disruption Survey (REDS) also showed that 92 per cent of students in the UAE have resources to learn remotely like the Internet, computers, and mobile phones.
The results of the study reflect the UAE’s significant efforts in planning and supporting the education process in the country during the pandemic.
The joint study, REDS, was launched in August 2020 by the Global Education Coalition initiative, Unesco in collaboration with the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) and the European Commission.
The study showed that the UAE reached outstanding evaluation in the assessment of international educational achievement during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hong Li, Director of Programs and Policy at UNESCO said: “UNESCO promotes best practices to minimise learning losses among students and works with educational authorities to provide research, workshops, and data to support institutions and adopt ideas”
Dirk Hastedt, CEO of IEA said: “The learning losses of UAE during the pandemic is limited due to UAE’s efforts towards adopting distance learning and providing all the educational resources necessary to support students’ continued learning.”
Russian invasion shines awkward light on the funding of Britain’s poshest schools
International politics is playing out in miniature inside the gates of the UK’s most expensive private schools, reports Sophia Money-Coutts in The Telegraph (Read behind the paywall here), where there have been reports of bullying against Russian students, and fights breaking out between Russian and Ukrainian children. While this is hardly the most pressing issue regarding the devastating war in Ukraine, what has been particularly awkward for independent schools is the light that it is shining on the origin of the money that has been flowing into the coffers of the UK’s poshest schools for years. Where schools previously operated on a no-questions-asked policy, the Western sanctions against wealthy Russian individuals has meant they might need to start asking questions – and they might not like the answers. Money-Coutts writes:
Last month, an investigation (Read behind the paywall here) claimed that dozens of oligarchs have been sending their children to British boarding schools and paying the fees with dodgy money.”
Schools that the investigation suggested might be faced with this problem include Harrow and Wycombe Abbey.
Earlier this month, the Independent Schools Council had to advise its members – the likes of Eton, St Paul’s and Thomas’s – not to take cash from sanctioned individuals. Schools responded by saying they didn’t want “to turf blameless children out. Or lose the fees, I suspect,” says Money-Coutts.
While private schools have not been behaving illegally, the shady amorality of their approach casts a slightly hypocritical shadow over their lofty claims as educators, Money-Coutts continues:
“A friend who runs a consultancy business advising people on the best schools for their children tells me that dubious requests have shot up in recent years. One mother asked which all-boys’ school would be able to provide accommodation for her son’s security detail. A couple of his clients have put their children into boarding schools with fake names, for protection. The schools allow it, he says, if it’s for the security of the child.”
“This isn’t illegal. But doesn’t it seem rum behaviour for establishments so keen to prove that they’re churning out thoroughly upstanding pupils?”
How to have the ULTIMATE Spring Break in Dubai
It’s the UAE Spring Break 2022 and the kids are off school and raring for stimulation. But rather than grappling with the usual choice between sports-style camps and passive screen entertainment, why not take the opportunity to get them involved in something that truly inspires, moves, or even leaves them with a new life skill? at least one or two weeks left of UAE Spring Break 2022 still to go, here’s the SchoolsCompared.com round-up of the genuinely best Spring Camps, most fantastic family-friendly activities and truly life-changing things for kids to do in the UAE…
Tabitha Barda’s The School Report © SchoolsCompared.com. 2022. All rights reserved.
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