UAE closes schools for a month while facilities are 'sterilised'

Spring break, which was due to begin on March 29 will instead begin on March 8 and last two weeks. Distance learning will be carried out during the remaining two weeks, the ministry said.

The 'Learning from Afar' programme will start with pupils from grades 5 to 12 over the next two days , the Ministry of Education said late on Monday.

The ministry said distance learning was part of the “requirements of an Emirati school and to ensure the continuity of the learning process without any difficulties".

"Distance learning is considered a method of self-learning, which leads to strengthening the education system and ensuring its continuity,” the ministry said.

The decision does not affect private schools – but many operators are making their own plans in case the authorities tell them to suspend classes.

Gavin Walford-Wright, head of marketing and admissions at Taaleem, which runs 10 private schools in Dubai, said the group began testing a home teaching system last week.

The system would include live streaming, to allow teachers to talk to children.

"Home-learning programmes are already in place at Taaleem schools; for instance, Dubai British School uses Microsoft Teams. We would turn to these tools if needed," he said.

"Last week, we started stress testing the school network to make sure the bandwidth worked and could cope with the demand of simultaneous live streaming.

"We set up classrooms with an external connection so pupils could connect with teachers in a virtual classroom. The trial run went smoothly."

He said the main challenge is ensuring the internet connection is strong enough to allow the classes to continue uninterrupted .

"The only other issue we could foresee with the full virtual experience is how to get materials to children in advance and keep them engaged," he said.

Source: The National