Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Imran Mojib, Special Correspondent

For the first time in the UAE, a new school opened with online classes. The Eminence Private School, Fujairah, started its first academic year online.

When the Covid19 pandemic’s abrupt escalation in the UAE during March brought out the official decision by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to shift to distance education, with only a few weeks before the official launch of the Academic Year 2020-2021, the school halted the preparations for the opening of the offline campus and moved its course of action to fulfill the requirement for a full-fledged online campus.

Due to the halt of all international flights, the school could not bring many of its teachers to the UAE. They are still in different parts of India. Being in a virtual mode, these teachers are connecting to the students online and taking classes in a structured way.

In something akin to the making of one of a kind history, the school was officially launched as intended but via online campus with no compromises. Within a matter of a few days, the school established an online education platform connecting students and faculty from all over UAE, and South Asia making it the first school to newly open online.

The academic year began with a pre-recorded speech from the CEO K E Harish and Principal Dr. Chitra Joshi, substituting Assembly, and through virtual classes where the students and the faculty members met for the first time.

Eminence Private School is a flagship school of a reputed educational thought leader in India, Sadhbhavana Group. The Group runs one of India’s Top 10 Schools, Sadhbhavana World School. A major aspect that makes Sadhbhavana ‘s successful educational organization is its philosophy in education where skills development is prioritised along with knowledge.

The group believes that young learners need to be taught how to understand, empathise, respond and be committed to the greater good of the society than just being academically proficient. Every practice adopted by the group reflects this, thus contributing to creating global citizens who are socially sensitive and emotionally stable.

The philosophy behind Eminence stems from the amalgamation of various schools of thought and methods that are designed around teaching and reinforcing 21st-century skills, including social behaviours such as communication, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration.