Sharjah's private education regulator has paved the way for the return of school pupils to classrooms in September.
Schools across the emirate closed their doors in March as part of efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19, with teachers conducting lessons remotely in the following months.
The Ministry of Education confirmed last week it was drawing up plans to allow for schools to reopen safely in time for the new academic year.
Among ideas under discussion were smaller classroom numbers, pupil temperature checks, a ban on sharing food and a 30 per cent cap on school bus passengers.
Officials in Sharjah confirmed they would enforce these precautionary measures and would mandate schools to appoint an experienced health and safety officer in addition to a licensed nursing staff to ensure regulations were being followed.
Maintenance staff would also not be allowed into schools during the day under the strategy.
“These procedures apply to all private schools with no exceptions,” said Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, head of SPEA.
“The authority is aware how mechanisms of implementing these procedures may differ from one school to another based on factors like school size but we trust our schools will be able to come up with best solutions during these tough times.
"We have held meetings with all private schools in the emirate to listen to their suggestions and opinions regarding the return of pupils to classes and we will keep a direct contact with them to ensure precautionary measures are implemented once pupils are back."
She added that inspections will be conducted to ensure schools are prepared to welcome pupils while regular inspections will be carried out after their return to make sure safety rules are followed.
The authority said it was reviewing options for how the new school year will look, ranging from a 100 per cent return to the classroom to a gradual return to 50 per cent capacity.
Continuing distance learning for all pupils will also be considered as part of the proposals.
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Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
