UAE School National Day Public Holiday Switches to Monday – KHDA and MOHR Step in to “Save the Day” for Private Schools and Families. Friday in most cases to switch to Distance Learning. Exclusive.

Public Holidays UAE: National Day Holiday Confirmed for Dubai Schools by MOHR

The KHDA and MOHR have officially confirmed that the UAE National Day public holiday for Dubai private schools will now extend to Monday 4th December after worries that no working day would be provided for families to take time away to celebrate one of the most important days in the history of the Emirates. Friday is likely too in most schools to become a Distance Learning Day. MOHR follow-up release below:

KHDA have confirmed:

This will be the 52nd Union Day in the Emirates – and this year events will be focused around sustainability, and the UAEs contribution to making a better world for future generations of families. Major events are taking place in alignment with COP28 UAE including a celebration at EXPO City.

The official ceremony will be broadcasted live on television and online on the second of December and the event, filled to bursting with drama, stories, projections – and hope, will run between the fifth and twelfth of December.

National Day celebrates the formation of the country in 1971 when six emirates bound together to form the UAE. Ras Al Khaimah joined them in 1972. The holiday sees citizens and residents join together to celebrate the birth of the nation at events across the Emirates.

On social media on Friday 24 November, the MOHR saved the day by announcing that Monday 4 December will now be a public holiday for the private sector, which will now include all Dubai and UAE schools.

This makes for a 3.5 day long weekend for schoolchildren and teachers, including the regular half day on Friday, plus Saturday and Sunday.

Distance Learning means in practice that this will be a four-day break spending time together for many families to celebrate this 52nd milestone in UAE history.

The UAE government, through MOHR, had originally announced that the private sector would have only a two-day paid break for UAE national day, this incorporating only the regular weekend on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 December. In practice, this would have meant that families would have lost the extra day that normally recognises the importance of National Day to the Emirates. Originally schools had planned for Friday to be a holiday, believing that this would be the most likely date for National Day celebrations following the KHDA provisionally marking the Friday day-off in lieu:

In the public sector there was no issue; public sector workers are entitled to a three-day paid break, including the addition of Monday 4 December, as well as a “remote work” day on Friday 1 December.

The KHDA has traditionally followed the public sector holidays, even though it regulates private-sector schools in Dubai. The decision will ensure parity between private and public schools – and ensure that families at different schools will now be able to spend time together to celebrate National Day.

This is a very fast-moving story and will be updated.

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