Abu Dhabi: Three school operators have been chosen from 27 applicants to offer a total of 2,340 new private school seats in the capital, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) announced in a statement on Sunday.
The operators will run three different institutions that will be housed in former public school buildings in Abu Dhabi Island.
“The process of choosing the selected operators was comprehensive and paid careful attention to their reputation in providing high standards of education, their experience in operating a school and their financial capability,” said Hamad Al Daheri, executive director at the Adec’s Private Schools and Quality Assurance Sector.
As reported by Gulf News, the initiative to offer vacant public buildings to private school operators was first introduced by the Adec in April to cater to the growing demand for private school seats in the emirate. The availability of four buildings, which could create 3,090 school seats between them, was announced and investors were encouraged to submit proposals to lease the buildings for school operations.
Among the three new schools is a branch of the International Community School, which will offer the British curriculum to 720 prospective pupils. The new school will be based in the former Ajnadeen School building. Another branch of the International Community School is already open in Abu Dhabi city’s Electra Street.
The British curriculum will also be offered by Gems Winchester School, to be housed in the former Al Mutanabi School building. This will provide 900 new school seats to pupils from Foundation Stage up to Year 9. Although this will be the first branch of Gems Winchester School in Abu Dhabi, the new institution will be one among a series of schools run by education company Gems in Abu Dhabi.
Summit International School will also open in the former Abdulla Bin Otaiba School building, and offer the American Curriculum to 720 pupils.
As Gulf News reported on Tuesday, the three schools will also offer priority registration and a limited number of school seats at discounted rates for pupils of recently closed villa schools.
“This process will speed up the achievement of our long term priorities, which include increasing availability of school seats and managing the influx of the growing number of school pupils in private schools,” Al Daheri said.
The statement also added that Adec expects the chosen operators to quickly set up at the new promises and be ready in time for the new academic year beginning in September.
The last of the vacant school buildings is located in Bani Yas area on the outskirts of the capital city, and the Adec had announced in April that it should house a school offering the Ministry of Education curriculum.
— With additional inputs from Cherry Warburton, intern at Gulf News
