KHDA Blocks GEMS Winchester's Gr. 10 Expansion

A "surprise" KHDA block to the planned expansion of GEMS Education's Winchester School to offer Grade 10 in 2014/15 has left parents of some 90 students scrambling to find places for the next academic year.

Mohammad Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Permits Commission at the KHDA, told Gulf News for Winchester to have been granted permission to expand, it needed to be rated at least ‘Good’ by the Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB).

GEMS Winchester was rated ‘Acceptable’ in DSIB’s 2013-14 report.

“The school was given recommendations for improvement before addition of grades could be granted. The KHDA will consider approving the addition of the next grades only after the school’s performance has improved,” said Darwish.

A GEMS spokesperson said the school received KHDA’s final decision last week and that it had not anticipated it. "It was an unexpected occurrence that caught us by surprise."

The school, located in Oud Metha, has offered affected pupils seats in two other GEMS schools — Winchester School in Sharjah and The Westminster School in Al Ghusais.

Parents are reportedly underwhelmed with the choice - one school is too far and the other almost shut down in 2012 they told Gulf News.

“[Westminster] announced in 2012 that it would close down in 2014. It almost closed down. How do I know this won’t happen again?," asked Raza R., who has a daughter in grade nine at GEMS Winchester.

"The school should have informed us earlier so we could find alternatives, not after it took our admission fees,” he said.

Up until the KHDA notification, GEMS Winchester had been seeking a re-enrollment fee of 900 AED for Grade 10.