Sharjah authority discusses complete, safe, return of students to school

Sharjah - SPEA holds meeting with directors of private institutions where students' attendance is below 50 per cent

Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) held a meeting with the directors of private schools, where students' attendance is below 50 per cent.

The meeting tackled the challenges and difficulties of the next stage, and reviewed mechanisms and ways to implement preventive measures to ensure a complete and safe return of students to schools.

The meeting comes as a continuation of a series of meetings held by SPEA during the past few weeks, aiming at paving the way to enhance private schools' preparations to receive students at the 31st of October for a complete return to the attendance system.

The meeting touched on the challenges that schools may face during the full return process, and the most prominent solutions and proposals to overcome obstacles.

The meeting also highlighted the four recovery indicators that supported the back-to-school decision, including attendance rates, positivity, vaccination, and compliance, as well as the attendance goal achieved by most Sharjah private schools, which is 50 per cent students attendance.

The participants in the meeting expected a full return to school by the 31st of October.

Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, Chairperson of SPEA said that SPEA is determined to implement a complete return to the in-person education system, whereas private schools are ready to the conventional educational system, taking into account the necessity of adhering to the requirements of the amended guidelines, pointing out that the SPEA supervisory teams will intensify their monitoring campaigns to ensure full compliance with preventive measures, to ensure the safety of all parties of the educational system.

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The meeting concluded that the fruitful cooperation between SPEA, the different institutions and official bodies, and the general educational community, resulted in making great achievements, transforming the pandemic into available opportunities, and lessons learned that were employed in anticipating the expected challenges and obstacles, and proposing solutions necessary to achieve the general goal, which is a complete and safe return to the in-person education system.

The requirements also included maintaining the permitted number of attendance within one classroom, and the return of school buses to work at their full capacity, while inviting parents to subscribe to the electronic platform launched by the authority, "Your Children are Safe", in order to enhance the parents' ability to follow their children's journey from homes until their return, in addition to 100 per cent vaccination of the school workers.

• Sharjah