KHDA Seeks to Punish DASS over Unapproved Closure
Dubai American Scientific School asked parents on Saturday to keep their children home until Thursday. It said it was updating systems, including CCTV cameras, as required by a US consulate notification about "the political climate in the Middle East".
In fact, according to UAE daily, the National, the consulate has issued only one notice, in response to regional unrest over an anti-Islamic video, in which it says it expects no such problems in the UAE.
Suspending classes and installing cameras both require permission from education regulators. "This has obliged us to take further punitive action," Abdulrahman Nassir of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority told the National, which oversees the operation of private schools in the emirate.
The school has been in trouble with the KHDA since August, when it was ordered to stop enrolling pupils after it failed seven rounds of inspections.
The safety of pupils, attendance rates and teaching quality were all rated unsatisfactory in the KHDA's inspection report. When the school's management ignored the the order not to take on more students, and enrolled 125 pupils for the current academic year, the KHDA suspended its licence.
The KHDA has warned that new pupils enrolled at the school will not have their certificates attested. Without an attested certificate, pupils cannot transfer to the same grade at another school and cannot be admitted to university.
It has offered to help parents to find new schools, but so far only about 20 parents have sought assistance.
