ADEC readjust minimum school age at 3 years and 8 months

As part of plans to standardise education in line with international schools, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, ADEC, will re-adjust the minimum admission age for Kindergarten 1 (KG1) or Foundation Stage 2 (FS2) starting from the next academic years 2014 - 2015. Addressing a private schools' orientation conference yesterday, Dr. George Nader, licensing and accreditation manager, ADEC, said the new regulations will be enforced starting from the next academic year of each school. There are currently 184 private schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and they admitted more than 202,000 pupils between them during the 2012 - 2013 academic year. A total of 14 different curricula are offered at present, including British, American, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, French and Japanese systems. According to reports published by local dailies, a host of other regulations were also discussed at the conference, including one that prevents children from being retained in grades lower than Grade 5. "Up to Grade 5, schools cannot fail pupils. Instead, they must support pupils who are not performing well," Dr. Nader said at the conference. According to Dr. Nader, the licensing and accreditation division has established a compliance team who will visit schools to make sure schools are operating in accordance with ADEC regulations.