Dubai: Parents of grade nine pupils are struggling to find seats after GEMS Winchester School in Dubai announced that it will not be offering grade 10 classes next year.
The school, which is located in Oud Metha, did offer affected pupils seats in two other GEMS schools — Winchester School in Sharjah and The Westminster School in Al Ghusais. But parents declined, saying that one school is too far and the other almost shut down in 2012.
“All that I can think about is finding a school. I have been running around ever since I received the circular on Thursday,” said Gauhar Niass, whose grade nine daughter is affected.
Niass said she will not be accepting the options because she lives in Ras Al Khor and the alternatives are too far away.
“On Sunday I visited five different schools looking for a seat, but all admissions have closed since March,” she said.
The school announced via a circular sent to parents on Thursday that it will not be offering grade 10 classes after they were refused permission to do so by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).
Mohammad Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Permits Commission at the KHDA, said for a school to be granted permission to expand, it must be rated at least ‘Good’ by the Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB), but GEMS Winchester was rated ‘Acceptable’ in DSIB’s 2013-14 report.
“The school was given recommendations for improvement before addition of grades could be granted. KHDA will consider approving the addition of the next grades only after the school’s performance has improved,” said Darwish
Another parent, J. Khan, whose daughter goes to GEMS Winchester, believes parents should have been informed earlier so that they could look for other schools.
“We live in Al Khail. Our children’s school is in Oud Metha. So why would they choose schools that are in or next to Sharjah? They should have informed us before admissions closed or provided us with better options.”
Talking about the options that the parents were given, a GEMS spokesperson said they were provided with the most suitable alternatives.
“The schools, which were offered as an option by GEMS, were chosen because they are the most appropriate and will have the least interruption to their education since they offer the same curriculum they have been studying and they also have available seats.”
The GEMS spokesperson said the school received KHDA’s final decision last week and were surprised by the decision. The spokesperson also said the re-enrolment fees will be transferred to the GEMS schools which the students will be transferred to or the amount can be refunded.
Raza R., who has a daughter in grade nine at GEMS Winchester, said since he lives on Shaikh Zayed Road, The Westminster School in Al Ghusais is a more realistic option but he does have some concerns.
“The school announced in 2012 that it would close down in 2014. It almost closed down. How do I know this won’t happen again? The school should have informed us earlier so we could find alternatives, not after it took our admission fees,” he said.
Jagdesh Kumar, father of a daughter affected by the decision, said having to move one of his three children to a different school is going to be inconvenient.
