Dubai: GEMS Education schools could be part of the pilot roll out of the ‘Rahhal’ project that will allow students in Dubai to study at two or more schools, Dino Varkey, CEO of GEMS Education, said on Sunday in Dubai.
His comments came on the sidelines of the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF), organised by the Varkey Foundation.
Through ‘Rahhal’, students who wish to study part-time at mainstream schools and part-time elsewhere in the community will be able to do so.
Starting from September, students in Dubai who prefer to study at two, three or even four different schools will able to do so, under a pilot phase of ‘Rahhal’.
The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) in Dubai has launched ‘Rahhal’ project as its contribution towards the Dubai 10X Initiative, a venture overseen by the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF).
Speaking to reporters at GESF on Sunday, Varkey said: “We are having conversations with the KHDA about how we can be a standard bearer for that [Rahhal] programme. I think the nature of the programme, what they would like to do, is incredibly innovative.”
He added that 10X gives Rahhal and other initiatives “the freedom and the flexibility to truly risk and innovate without fear of consequences of ‘how does the federal regulation system deal with it, or how does an inspections system deal it’.”
“All credit goes to the KHDA for imagining such a programme and we hope that we can be a partner that’s going to be a standard bearer and a leader to try and implement [Rahhal]”.
GEMS is the largest private school group in the UAE, operating almost 50 schools in the country. Varkey said: “Our scale allows us to try and implement the programme to a higher degree of success, we hope, than other providers.”
