COVID-19: Abu Dhabi schools set to welcome students back to physical classrooms from Sunday

Abu Dhabi: Hundreds of Abu Dhabi schoolchildren are set to return to physical classrooms on Sunday (February 14), marking the first time this trimester that classes will be held physically in the emirate.

It will also mark the first time after March 2020 that students enrolled in Grades 6 to 8, and students with chronic conditions, at Abu Dhabi private and charter schools will be able to attend school in person.

As in the rest of the UAE, the school term began after the winter break on January 3 in Abu Dhabi. However, the emirate’s education regulator, the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (Adek), mandated remote learning for all students initially for the first two weeks, and then extended it until February 11.

From Sunday, parents still have the option to continue distance learning for their children, but children of all grade levels can also choose to the classroom.

“Principals at each of the GEMS Education schools have been consulting parents for many weeks concerning the start of Term 2, and have been preparing for additional students to return. Students across all cycles, year groups and grades were given the choice to return to school or remain in distance learning. Across three of the British Curriculum schools including GEMS Cambridge International School, Abu Dhabi, Cambridge High School and the Winchester School, Abu Dhabi on-site student numbers were set to more than double, with Cambridge International welcoming back over 2,100 learners, or over 60 per cent of the student cohort,” Hornsby added.

In order to ensure a safe school return, Adek first coordinated with health authorities during the winter break to offer free PCR COVID-19 testing to students and educators, including saliva-based testing for students aged 4 to 11 years who have returned to the UAE on or after January 3.

From January 17 onwards, the authority also organised a 10-day campaign that saw more than 15,000 educators, school staff and their family members at 222 private and charter schools in the emirate receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The openness to a physical return to school is most obvious at institutions that saw a limited number of students opting for face-to-face learning in the previous semester.