Adec exerting efforts to resolve undersupply of school seats

Abu Dhabi – Enrolment at private schools, which currently cater to nearly 60 per cent of all schoolchildren in Abu Dhabi emirate, has seen a seven per cent increase in the past five years.

The Abu Dhabi Education Council, which is the educational authority in the emirate, announced earlier this year that this enrolment is expected to increase by another five per cent in the near future due to a growing population rate in Abu Dhabi, as well as the transfer of additional pupils from the northern emirates.

To cater to this growing demand for school seats, 15,000 new schools seats must be made available each year to provide enough places for children while 24,000 additional seats are required to accommodate pupils displaced by the closure of villa schools they were enrolled in.

In a bid to resolve this undersupply, Adec met private investors in January. Officials announced at the time that nearly Dh4 billion must be invested in private education to ensure that there are enough places for the emirate’s children by 2020.

Following the meeting, GEMS Education, which runs four schools in Abu Dhabi, announced its intention to operate another seven schools to accommodate 30,000 pupils. B. R. Shetty, CEO of NMC Healthcare and chairman of Abu Dhabi Indian School, also said he had invested in a 36,000 square metre plot in Mohammad Bin Zayed City, which will house a second branch of the Indian curriculum school.

In addition, four vacant public buildings, which can provide more than 3,000 new school seats, have been offered to private investors who wish to operate schools. Three of these buildings have already been taken up, and will house two British curriculum and one American curriculum school.

Two other brand new private schools offering the British curriculum also opened this month.

Before the start of the 2013-2014 academic year, the Adec also said in a statement that there was a demand for a total of 201,744 private schools seats, while the number of available places was 175,441. By the end of the 2015-2016 school year, this demand is expected to rise to 225,521 seats.

Accordingly, a land Request for Proposal was issued in August. Interested private investors can apply for these, and offer 11,000 school seats by the 2015-2016 academic year in areas such as Khalifa City A, Al Wathba and Al Falah.