Abu Dhabi: In its previous round of private school inspections, Abu Dhabi emirate’s education sector regulator, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), judged the deceased Nizaha Aalaa’s school as an institution in need of significant improvement.
Al Worood Academy Private School was rated among schools in B and C (Needing Significant Improvement), with a very unsatisfactory grade (Grade 7), in the Adec inspections that concluded in 2013. The school offers both the British and American curricula.
The inspection report made several recommendations, including some to address health and safety hazards that were detected.
“Leadership and management are very unsatisfactory. Leaders are not properly accountable,” the inspection report reads.
“Insufficient attention is given to the protection, care, guidance and support of pupils. There is no child protection policy or full understanding of child protection issues by staff…Many parents feel that pupils at the school are not safe and well cared for,” it adds.
The report also states that security in the morning and at dismissal time is not rigorous, especially when kindergarten classes finish.
The report on Al Worood derived from the latest round of private school inspections by the Adec has not yet been published.
Aalaa’s six-year-old sister studies at an Indian curriculum school in Musaffah. Their father, Naseer Ahmad, said he had placed Aalaa in Al Worood only because he had been unable to find a seat in any other Indian curriculum school this academic year.
Yesterday (October 7), a board member from the school who declined to be named, expressed condolences to Aalaa’s bereaved family.
Preliminary investigations into the incident found negligence on the part of a school staff, and the absence of a large number of students on Tuesday (the day school resumed after the Eid holidays) contributed to the incident.
“We have around 2,300 students enrolled, but around 1,000 of them were absent on Tuesday,” the board member said.
A female attendant in the bus had recorded Aalaa in the list of pupils boarding the vehicle, but her name was not among the list of pupils who reached the school, she explained. Aalaa had likely been locked in the bus for four hours until 12pm, when the attendant noticed the error and found the child dead inside.
