Parents, kids a happy lot as students go back to school

Khaleej Times met on the first day with a cross-section of parents, students, teachers and school administrators in Abu Dhabi who expressed the hope that the new academic year would see more progress in the educational sphere.

“Though this is the first day we have so many hopes for our children to be on the top,” Sandeep Singu, a father, said.

He said that there were difficulties in the educational process always in the first two months and then everything will fall into place. “The new Saturday off is a good system and it will be better than the old one,” he added.

Saeed Othman, a father of three pupils, remarked that the education in the UAE is very good and daily witnesses improvements but had reservations on one score. “There is only one issue that makes me think and worry all the time which is the tuition fees, because I have three children and I pay annually Dh15,000 as fees for their schooling,” he said

From a teacher’s point of view, Una Sabharwal, KG administrator for Abu Dhabi Indian School, explained that concentration is developed by students at the kindergarten level, which is the most impressionable among all other stages of schooling. “The children at the KG stage are a different type of people, they are so vulnerable and we must give them a special care and different way of treatment,” she said.

“We focus on the playing only in the KG classes, and during the playing we can inculcate some values, and behaviours in the child.

The Principal of Abu Dhabi Indian School, Vijay Kumar Kaul, said that they have 4430 students in the school in the different educational stages. “The Ministry of Education (MoE) is very cooperative and supportive of all schools and spares no efforts to help us or to provide the school administration with the necessary assistance’,” he noted.

“We focussed our attention in meetings last month to prepare the school for the start of the new academic year, such as the maintenance of the building, the air-conditioning and offering drinking water to pupils,” said Intesar Shibani, Administrator of Al Kinidi School.

The first day of the new academic year passed off safely without any mishaps or any traffic accident in Abu Dhabi and its suburbs, a senior police officer said.

Colonel Gaith Al Za’abi, Director of Traffic and Patrols Department, Abu Dhabi Police, said that his Department had started executing an integrated plan to ensure safety of students. “There will be special field patrols under the supervision of 20 officers and a team of 124 policemen. And 62 patrol cars and 20 traffic observers will be involved in the plan to ensure smooth flow of traffic from early peak morning hours to the end of school day, he told a press conference yesterday in the presence of top traffic and public relations and information officers.

There will be restriction on movements of heavyily loaded vehicles on the main streets from 6am to 3pm, he said. The traffic department will step up the patrolling to monitor any violations, he added.

According to him, internal roads in Abu Dhabi will have easy flow of traffic during the current academic year after the completion of the on-going construction works.

Lt. Colonal Dr. Khaleed Al Naqubi, Head of Information and Public Relations Committee, said the ‘back to school plan’ was based on security and traffic aspects to raise the traffic safety awareness among parents, students and bus drivers.

The traffic department has set many guidelines for assuring the safety of school children. During the campaign, literature and other education materials will be distributed to the children, parents, and drivers and to the general public. Gifts also will be distributed to the children along with campaign materials.

“Letters will be sent to the students, teachers, drivers and SMS also will be sent to alert the people regarding safety needs,” he added.

Major Jamal Al Amri, Head of Information and Public Relations Department, said the campaign was organised by the Abu Dhabi Police in cooperation with the Emirates Driving School (EDS) and ADMA.

“Public awareness centres will be set up at major shopping malls like Abu Dhabi Mall, Marina mall, Carrefour, Action zone and Airport road for two weeks, he said. Jihad Sebta, Director of EDS, said his company would join hands with the Abu Dhabi Police in the long-month back to school traffic awareness campaign.

He indicated that the EDS had contributed to preparing the awareness pamphlets which will be distributed to schools.