Covid-19: Over a million students in UAE go back to school virtually on Sunday

The Ministry of Education had trialled the e-learning system last week.

More than a million students in public and private schools across the UAE are all set to start virtual classes from Sunday. As a precautionary measure against the Covid-19 spread, the Ministry of Education had suspended classes at all schools on March 8. Schools used the first two weeks of the break (March 8-19) to train teachers, staff and parents to implement distance learning.
From Sunday, children will be back in school — virtually.
> Public schools: The ministry said on Saturday that government schools will have 20 classes per week. Depending on the grades, the school hours per day will range from three hours to six hours.
> Private schools: It is up to the schools to implement the distance learning plan according to their approved timelines and as deemed suitable.
Training
The ministry implemented remote specialist training for more than 25,000 government school teachers and administrators in addition to more than 9,200 private school teachers and principals. During the training week, the ministry focussed on creating virtual learning communities aimed at enhancing the teacher’s capabilities to remotely manage the education process.

The ministry, in cooperation with the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, also qualified more than 67,000 affiliates who underwent e-training in distance learning.
Two operations rooms
The ministry has equipped two advanced operations with modern systems and screens, enabling the school operations sector to monitor the learning process. This is aimed at ensuring smooth dealing with the information technology resources and effective communication between students and teachers.

To ensure efficient educational processes, the ministry opened a centre at the Emirati School building in Abu Dhabi and another at the Teacher Training Institute in Ajman.
Sterilisation of schools
The early spring break was used to conduct continuous sterilisation and cleaning operations for school facilities, universities and school buses. — Wam