Al Worood School closure will cause hardship, say parents

Abu Dhabi: The closure of the school which saw the death of one of its pupils in a school bus will affect scores of children who are still enrolled there, parents in the capital have said.

Some parents even suggested that Al Worood Academy Private School has earned such a bad reputation that they feel other institutions may be unwilling to accept its pupils.

Al Worood was ordered to close down by the emirate’s education sector regulator, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, after four-year-old Indian pupil Nizaha Aalaa was mistakenly left locked in a school bus last October. According to court investigations, Aalaa’s death occurred due to suffocation and heat stroke, and the Adec issued the order to shut down the institution about two weeks after the incident.

Under Adec’s order, Al Worood must shut down at the end of its current academic year on August 31, 2015.

“We sympathise with the parents who lost their child, and it is the biggest fact that nothing anyone does now will bring her back. And of course those responsible must be held accountable. But closing down the school is not the right solution for anyone,” Saeed Al Mazroui, an Emirati businessman in the capital, told Gulf News.

He was speaking after a court verdict issued yesterday (February 8) that upheld the closure order for the school, and also ordered jail sentences and fines for the bus driver, bus attendant, bus supervisor, and transport company owner.

“The best thing to do would be to change the school’s management completely, or allow a qualified school operator to take over the institution,” he added.

All of Al Mazroui’s four sons study in Al Worood, and he said that the closure would be troublesome for the pupils, who would have to transfer to other schools.

“I attended a parent teacher meeting two weeks ago, and many of us there were very concerned. The school has a very bad name now, and some parents told me that other schools did not seem keen on admitting their children. This backlash from parents and other schoolchildren is also what I fear for my sons,” the father said.

According to Adec’s previous inspection report that concluded in 2013, the school had more than 2,000 enrolled pupils.

Adel Al Marzouqui, 40, another Emirati parent with three children at Al Worood, agreed with a mandated change in school management instead of a shutdown.

“Why should our children suffer due to serious errors made by the school authorities? In fact, I have tried to register my children at three other schools, and have got the vibe that pupils from Al Worood would not be particularly welcome,” he said.

The parents said, however, that they had seen the standard of education and safety at the school decline.

“There have been instances, for example, where my sons were injured at school and yet the staff would not let them contact me before the end of the school day. But my eldest son has been a pupil at Al Worood for 14 years, and I would say the standards have fallen only over the last five years or so. This is why a management overhaul is so necessary,” Al Mazroui explained.

The court also ordered yesterday (February 8) that the school pay a fine of Dh150,000 for the two charges against it: Aalaa’s wrongful death, and endangerment of children on board its buses.

Abu Dhabi-based parents, however, felt that the amount should have been much higher.

“The school displayed gross negligence in its care of children, and it should pay a much higher price for the tragedy,” said N.S., a mother whose two daughters are enrolled at another Abu Dhabi private school.

Aalaa’s grandfather, Asghar Ali, also said yesterday that the Al Worood management had not even contacted the bereaved family to convey their condolences.

In the meantime, its administrative, operational and financial matters are being handled by the Adec in order to ensure pupils’ safety.

As Gulf News reported earlier, the institution was rated among schools in Band C (Needing Significant Improvement), with a very unsatisfactory grade (Grade 7), during the previous round of school inspections. The Adec inspection report made several recommendations, including some to resolve unaccountable leadership practices and insufficient attention given to the care, protection, guidance and support of pupils.