Schools’ teaching and technical staff to start duty on Sunday

Iman Soroor, Staff Reporter

The teaching, administrative and technical staff of the government schools nationwide will start duty on Sunday, a week ahead the start of the new academic year (2021-2022) for students.

The number of government schools that will receive students and teachers this year is 564, distributed in various regions of the country.

They are fully committed to the precautionary and preventive measures to ensure a safe return to school.

The administrations of government and private schools in Abu Dhabi affirmed their full readiness to receive teachers and students who wish to perform face-to-face education, noting that they are abide by following the precautionary and preventive measures in force in the country.

Hussein Al Harthy, under secretary of Al Qudra School, said, “We started the preparations early in the summer vacation, in terms of continuing sterilization, placing precautionary and preventive posters in corridors, classrooms and yards. In addition, the school prepared a list of the numbers of students wishing to attend face-to-face education, so that all necessary requirement will be ready to receive them.”

Dr. Hatem Darwish, Director of a private school, explained that the school has been completely sterilized (classrooms, administration offices, teacher rooms, scientific laboratories, learning centers and resources, gymnasium and canteen). The school uniforms were distributed to the students who wish to attend face-to-face, he added.

Darwish also pointed out that the health and safety guidelines and precautionary measures were followed in terms of providing sterilizers in the various sections of the school, maintaining physical distancing, and applying the highest levels of health measures to ensure a safe and healthy return of students in the new school year.

Obaid Moftah Al Mahrazi, director of a government school, said,  “The communication continues between the school administration with the various departments in the Ministry of Education and with the Emirates Education Foundation, to overcome any obstacles that may face us in the future, prepare plans and programmes for them, and to be updated about the developments of the educational process.”

In the meant time, the administrations of high schools for girls in Abu Dhabi indicated that a distribution company was contacted to arrange books delivery on time in order to receive and store them well and safely to be distributed to students during the first week of the school year.

A number of private schools in Abu Dhabi confirmed the readiness of their school clinics, the provision of sanitary tools, sterilization, and the follow-up and readiness of isolation rooms. The nurses and committees composed of administrators and teachers had been trained on how to follow up and monitor students, and how to maintain physical distancing, they added.

They also explained that they had developed a system of penalties for violators, if any, according to the school conduct regulation.

The Abu Dhabi schools confirmed their interest in vaccination campaigns for their students. They also notified the students' parents, administrators and teachers to do a nasal swab (PCR) at the authorized medical centres, and to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to ensure a safe and healthy return to school.