UAE | Education
Unsafe schools have been shut down
About 120 will be replaced with new ones within the next five years, says official
- By Siham Al Najami, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:04 November 9, 2007
Dubai: Most public schools have stable infrastructures but some lack an effective educational environment, either having inadequate laboratories, scarce equipment or lacking ventilation in their class rooms, said a Ministry of Education official.
"Some schools are just a bunch of classes lined together without enough additional facilities," said Khalid Shehail, Director of Education Building Department at the Ministry of Education.
According to him, the worst-off schools in the country are mainly in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, where five to six schools have been built to replace the ones that were shut down for this academic year as they were unsafe to be used.
"Over the past two years, 50 schools across the country have been shut down because they are unsuitable to teach in," he said.
Approximately 120 public schools will be replaced with new ones within the next five years, he added.
As for sports facilities, all public schools built before the year 2000 do not have gyms as those were not included in construction plans. Building gyms, said Shehail, is very costly and beyond the department's budget.
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Asked about the remaining schools, he said, "If we are supplied with a budget, we will build a gym for the rest. It costs Dh23million to build a gym."
Schools are responsible only for simple maintenance such as fixing the lighting; painting is the duty of the Ministry of Public Works as for the more complex issues such as restructuring it is within the Ministry of Education.
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