Sharjah considers ‘in campus’ schooling after summer vacations

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) is studying the possibilities of return to normal in campus schooling after summer vacation.

The authority revealed it on its twitter handle on Sunday, urging parents and students to share their opinion and thoughts over the issue.

“We miss you all on campus! We are studying the possibilities of ‘normal’ schooling,” tweeted the SPEA.

The SPEA said on Instagram, “Don’t you miss hearing the school bell, interacting with your teachers in class and playing with your friends during break time? Let’s aim for a safe return to classroom learning!”

In March this year Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management team (ECDMT) of Sharjah and the SPEA had announced the resumption of in-person classes at public and private nurseries in Sharjah.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, the SPEA has been keen to provide safe health conditions in all schools and nurseries, through a guidebook distributed to schools, nurseries and other educational institutions.

A parent, Anupadma Nair said, “I am already sending my daughter to school this academic year. So far good... Will send her school for onsite learning for next year as well…”

Azra Asad Khan said, “We as parents are vaccinated, our kids are very young to get vaccine... but hoping that everything get back to normal in the new session.”

American University of Sharjah-School of Business Administration-Department of Marketing and Information Systems associate professor/Centre for Innovation in Teaching director Dr Norita Ahmad claimed students are already tired of the virtual environment and they desire to physically interact with their teachers and fellow students: “The pandemic has proven how vital schools are to communities.

"We started to see the biggest dilemma of a large anonymous remote/virtual class. It limits individuality and encourages standardisation in learning against an intimate class that maintains a teacher-student relationship and allows the necessary conditions for active learning to thrive.”

Ahmad said school and university campuses are still “good investments and not obsolete.” She believes boys and men taught the importance of education to girls and women topples down partialities.

Rochester Institute of Technology (Dubai) president Dr. Yousef Al-Assaf has the same observation as Ahmad’s on students’ wish to be attending classes right inside their respective classrooms. He pointed out the concept of “learning autism” which is people having been used to dealing only with screens or computers that they are already socially incapable.