The UAE's Indian Schools Get Back To Work

Yesterday saw the start of the new academic year for UAE schools following the Indian curriculum.

Gulf News notes there are over 30 schools around the UAE following either the CBSE or CISCE curriculums.

Enrollment in Indian schools is up across the country, with the KHDA alone recording student enrollment in Indian Curriculum schools increasing by 28 percent in each successive year since 2011/12.

Senior vice president of GEMS Education, Sukwinder Bassi, told the paper, GEMS has seen an increase of more than 4,000 students across the group's Indian curriculum schools.

“As students from Indian curriculum schools in the UAE start their new academic year today, we are privileged to say we now have over 52,000 students at GEMS Indian curriculum schools,” he said.

While principal at Delhi Private School, Sharjah Chitra Raghavan, said: “We are packed. We have 30 students in one class...”

She went on to note the school currently has a student-teacher ratio of 12:1.

Several schools have revised their extracurricular offerings for the new academic year.

Delhi Private School Sharjah has added scouts/guides, robotics and aerobics. While the Sabari Indian School, Dubai, has added new facilities for sports, including football, basketball, cricket and badminton.

Talking to the publication, Ashok Kumar, CEO of Indian High School, said, “our children look forward to being back at school and this year our programmes for senior students especially is very dynamic as we are attempting to align ourselves to UAE’s National Education agenda 2021.”

“Every year we have specific goals to complete. This year we are focussing on high skills for senior students in Arabic language proficiency. We are moving with a definite programme and we will fulfill our goal of alignment by 2021.”