ABU DHABI // Closure dates for two more villa schools in the capital have been confirmed by the education authority.
The Private Cooperation School, which educates 343 pupils, will be shut on April 1 and My Private Kindergarten, with 338 pupils, will be closed on July 7, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) has said.
The news was confirmed by Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, director general of Adec, in an interview with The National's Arabic language sister newspaper, Al Ittihad.
He said Adec had reduced the number of schools operating out of villas from 72 with 45,000 pupils in 2008 to 69 with 43,000 students in 2009. By last year, the number was down to 43 schools with 31,800 students. This year, 37 school villas are operational with 24,000 students including 2,661 Emirati students.
Adec has offered substantial support to villa schools, according to Hamad Al Dhaheri, executive director of the private education sector. He said they were currently looking into assigning villa school operators unused public school buildings. Only establishments that have successfully managed private schools in the past would be given public school buildings.
The private education sector in Abu Dhabi has registered an annual growth rate of 5 per cent in recent years and Adec said it plants to expand schooling options to meet the demand.
Adec said plans were under way to open two Indian curriculum schools in Mohammed bin Zayed City by next year: Bright Riders with space for 617 pupils and The Modern Indian Scientific School with space for 621. It has also promised two international curriculum schools will open in Khalifa City A: Al Shohub School (British curriculum) with 1,200 spaces and Al Rawafid Private School (US curriculum) with 1,553 students.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
CORRECTION: This article was updated to reflect the correct spelling of Al Shohub School, which will have a new capacity of 1,200 pupils when it moves to Khalifa City A in the coming academic year.
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 620hp from 5,750-7,500rpm
Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed dual-clutch auto
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
BlacKkKlansman
Director: Spike Lee
Starring: John David Washington; Adam Driver
Five stars
World%20Food%20Day%20
%3Cp%3ECelebrated%20on%20October%2016%2C%20to%20coincide%20with%20the%20founding%20date%20of%20the%20United%20Nations%20Food%20and%20Agriculture%20Organisation%2C%20World%20Food%20Day%20aims%20to%20tackle%20issues%20such%20as%20hunger%2C%20food%20security%2C%20food%20waste%20and%20the%20environmental%20impact%20of%20food%20production.%20%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now