Education zone freezes licences of three schools

Ras Al Khaimah: The Private Education Department in RAK Educational Zone has frozen the licences of three private schools until they replace wooden classrooms and fix damaged facilities in accordance to the department's requirements.

"Official notes have already been sent to these schools informing their management and owners that the licences of the schools were frozen and will never be renewed until the wooden classrooms are replaced with cement buildings and the other facilities are fixed properly to create a healthy environment for the students," said Salem Saif Al Jaber, who heads the Private Education Department at the RAK Educational Zone.

"Official letters, warnings and fines have not worked with these schools which considered such measures unimportant and came over them without paying the necessary attention to them," he said.

Al Jaber said that the department had to be harder on the violating schools, following official visits that concluded some of the emirate-based private schools failed to meet the demands of the Ministry of Education.

"Officials from the zone paid field visits to all the private schools in the emirate and provided detailed demands that should be met on the earliest," he said, adding that replacing the wooden rooms was the key demand.

At risk

"Once these demands ended up in the hands of the schools' managements and owners, official notes were sent to the schools informing them that their licenses were put on hold and would not be renewed until they do what should be done, or else the violating schools will lose their licenses," he said.

The educational licences of the private schools in the emirate expire at different times, and what is sure from the zone's point of view, said Al Jaber, is that the renewal of the licences will depend completely on the schools meeting the zone's demands.

Al Jaber said that the schools should ensure they meet all the demands before the expiration of the licences to avoid the fines that will be imposed for any delay.

"It is either the violating schools fix their status or they lose their licences," he said, adding that zone will be carefully monitoring the conditions of these schools.

The RAK Educational Zone set up a committee to pay field visits to the schools to evaluate safety measures and submit detailed reports.