Schools, colleges hail four-and-a-half day working week

Dubai: The announcement of a four-and-a-half working week for schools, with the two-and-a-half day weekend beginning on Friday, has been widely welcomed in the UAE. Gulf News spoke to school and college managements to find out what they think about the new development. While the new weekend was considered to be in keeping with the global norm, some principals said they were already thinking of how they would make necessary adjustments given the half-day weekend extension.

Elmarie Venter, Chief Operations Officer of Gems Education which runs over two dozen schools across different curricula, said, “Gems Education has noted the important news about the working week changes in the UAE."

Justin Allen MacCauley, Principal, North American International School, Mizhar, Dubai, said, “It is a great move as this Saturday and Sunday weekend is a global alignment decision and will give our students the opportunity to align with other Anmerican schools and have a dialogue with other sister schools in America.

Nahid Afshan, Head of Admission, BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, said, “The new four-and-a-half-day working week announcement is a great move by the UAE Government. This will further strengthen UAE’s positioning as global business hub, increasing competitiveness while aligning the country with international markets."

The institutions are eagerly awaiting more details of the guidelines.

Fiona Cottam, Principal Hartland International School which follows the British curriculum, said the school would wait for the education authority to provide detailed guidelines on how to best make up for a half day of instructions on Friday.

Punit Vasu, CEO, The Indian High School, following the Indian Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) curriculum, said, “I think from the point of view of the well-being of the teacher and the student it is going to be a very welcome move. I personally believe that a lot of learning takes place beyond the classrooms, in parks, playgrounds and social interactions. With more time on hands, our students will be able to hone other skills."

Rashmi Nandkoleyar, Principal DPS Dubai, said, “Personally, I welcome this move as it will align our week days internationally with other CBSE schools."

"The education authority will issue guidelines to smoothen out this transition, I am sure,” she added.

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