ABU DHABI // The Ministry of Education has spurned calls to delay the start of the school year until the end of Ramadan. Pupils in all schools using the ministry curriculum will return to classrooms at the end of the summer holidays on the usual date, Aug 31, the ministry announced today. Although public and private schools run on truncated schedules during Ramadan, which this year starts on Sept 1, some schools and parents had lobbied for the term to start after Ramadan as in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. "I think everyone would like school to start after Ramadan," said Mona al Badi, the assistant principal at Um Al Emarat in Al Shamka. "With the students, it's a bit difficult. During Ramadan you can't do a lot of things because the students and teachers are fasting." She said performance is affected because many pupils stay up late at night during the month. "If they eat normally and sleep at night everything would be fine... But during Ramadan, they like to watch TV at night, they make a lot of movies and things during Ramadan, so the students like to watch them and then they want to sleep during class." Some school officials said they were pleased with the ministry's decision. "If they had gone the other way it would have been a problem. Wherever Ramadan falls it falls, and we just deal with it, but that's the best for our kids," said Dr George Robinson, the superintendent at the American Community School in Abu Dhabi. "If they had told us that we had to [start school after Ramadan] we would have appealed it to the highest level... because it has to do with the academic integrity of our school year. It's very important to us as an American school that we stay quite close to typical American school calendars." He said that changing the school schedule would adversely affect student achievement. "The IB exams are in the first two weeks of May, if we were to start the school year late, then that would essentially bring a very short period of time of study for the most critical exams we have... it would really be damaging to their test results." Others who run private schools in the UAE agree with Dr Robinson. "The normal day should carry on as it does anywhere," said Melissa Jarvinen, the marketing manager at Taaleem, a company that manages six schools in the Emirates. "We forward plan for Ramadan... we build it into the curriculum, we consider that when we're designing what they need to learn and when." A spokesman for Global Education Management Services (GEMS), which runs 25 UAE schools, said: "If there is a movement to suspend the opening of schools until October our schools will have to remain open longer at the end of the year - leaving students in schools during the month of July. "This would prove to be challenging for our older students as they would have insufficient time to complete exams for the IGCSE, CBSE, American and IB Diploma curriculum. This could result in Saturday schools." Mohammed bin Hindi, the executive director for institutional affairs and supporting services at the ministry, said the issue was not open for discussion. As a result, administrative and teaching staff will return to work on August 24 to prepare for classes. According to Mr Hindi, the ministry was looking out for the interests of pupils over teaching and administrative staff. "The academic year is connected to a studied plan that coincides with the curriculum of every year and stage, therefore it is not reasonable at all to postpone or delay the academic year," he said. "Such a decision will lead to shortening the curriculums and eliminating the days of the next summer holidays thus the Ministry of Education will not accept this. The ministry assures that the school academic year will begin on the specified date with no delays." To postpone the start of the school year would affect the number of school days in the year, which the ministry recently increased. Mr Hindi said the school calendar was set up to achieve balance between the first and second terms and to co-ordinate with higher education institutions. @Email:klewis@thenational.ae
