Last 2 villa schools shut down

Over 900 pupils have been successfully transferred from their villa schools that offer Asian curriculum, ahead of the new academic year, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) has announced. "We have been able to relocate 733 pupils between KG1 and Grade 10 from the Oasis Private School, which follows the Indian schooling system-based CBSE curriculum; and 280 pupils between KG1 and Grade 7 from the New Al Hilal Private School, which follows the Pakistani curriculum," Pierre Scottorn, section manager for private school improvement at Adec, said. The closed institutions were the last two villa-based schools in operation in Al Ain. Due to the impending shutdown at the end of the month, the pupils will begin classes at the new Oasis International School that is expected to follow the CBSE curriculum. The new educational establishment is being temporarily run in a former government school building in Al Mezyad district, while construction work has been completed on a purpose-built facility that has already received licensing approval from the Council. "[The Council] will now focus its attention on the re-location of pupils attending the 41 villa schools in Abu Dhabi region to purpose-built schools," Engineer Hamad Al Daheri, executive director, Private Schools and Quality Assurance Sector, said in an Adec statement.