School days will continue after exams, says ESE

Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE) has approved the plan for the remaining school days of the academic year 2020-2021, which ends on 30th June, 2021, based on the academic calendar approved by the Ministerial Development Council for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Students will continue distance learning and adhere to school hours after the examination period, to end on 17th June, 2021, according to WAM.

ESE explained that the completion of term 3 exams indicates the completion of the curriculum and not the end of the current academic year. According to the approved academic calendar, school days will continue after exams to refine the student’s skills within an interactive learning environment.

ESE set the duration of the school day after the exams to four hours, as the educational cadres at public schools will manage a variety of extra-curricular activities to improve and refine students’ skills. Students will benefit from these skills in their upcoming academic years. The extra-curricular activities will cover various educational concepts such as remedial education, skill refinement and other skills.

ESE identified topics for grades 4-11 students that will help develop their literacy, numeracy and coding skills, combining theoretical and practical education.

Recently, more than 200 teachers from 194 schools (both public and private) across the UAE completed the blended Moral Education National Capacity Building Programme (NCBP) between November 2019 and February 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

The capacity-building initiative was led by the Crown Prince Court of Abu Dhabi in collaboration with several partners including the Emirates Schools Establishment, Knowledge and Human Development Authority and Department of Education and Knowledge. The TELLAL Institute (UAE) and its United States partner (The education partners) were commissioned to plan, design, deliver, assess and evaluate the initiative. One of the successes of the initiative has been the support provided by all partners in their desire towards raising the status of Moral Education and its teaching across all schools.

Commenting on the completion of the programme, Dr Rabaa Al Sumaiti, Director-General of the Emirates Schools Establishment, said, “The NCBP provides critical skills for teachers through an interactive platform and contributes to the development of a qualified pool of moral education teachers.”