Search for schools in Abu Dhabi made easy

Abu Dhabi: Parents searching for the best schools to enrol their children in within the emirate's educational zones are now easily able to do so through an interactive system currently in place on Abu Dhabi Education Council's (Adec) website.

Covering both private and public schools in Abu Dhabi, the "School Finder" is an innovative use of Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, enabling users to search for schools in the area according to certain preferences. Parents are able to indicate which zones they want, what type of school they wish to look for and what curriculum they are interested in. The system then filters those requests, and provides them with the most relevant results instantaneously.

"We use maps that are provided to us by the Abu Dhabi Systems and Information Centre (ADSIC), then we add information onto those maps to achieve a user-friendly technique of helping parents search for schools," Dr Ala'a Al Deen Ali, Division Manager of Information Management at the Office of Strategic Affairs (OSA), explained.

‘Great feature'

"Let's say a parent wishes to enrol their child at a school with a French curriculum, for the 12th grade level. Simply, all he has to do is enter this link, and indicate their needed criteria, and all relevant school searches will appear," Pakrad Balabanian, GIS Specialist at OSA, added.

Other relevant information about the school is also made available for all interested parties, such as the name of the school's principal, contact details, and a GPS (Global Positioning System) location. Information on whether schools include both genders or are strictly for boys or girls are also provided.

"GIS is not a map only. We are not just providing maps for people. Maps are tools used for analysis to provide relevant information to users," Rashid Al Mansouri, Director-General of ADSIC, added.

Parents who heard about this feature told Gulf News that they found it to be very helpful, especially for families who recently moved to Abu Dhabi.

"This is a great feature for parents, because I know of many of families who recently came to Abu Dhabi, either from abroad or from other emirates, who were having a very hard time deciding what schools they wanted to enlist their children in. They were walking blindly, physically, from one school to another, or else depending on other people's recommendations," Samir S., 49, who works in the oil industry, said.

Online

The "School Finder" can be used by visiting Adec's website on www.adec.ac.ae

— With inputs from Mayar Raouf, Staff Reporter

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