Parents of the roughly 2,200 pupils at Al Worood Academy Private School will have plenty of questions in the wake of Abu Dhabi Education Council's decision to revoke its operating licence at the end of the academic year. So too will the community at large about Adec's decision to take over an institution that had already been identified as "in need of significant improvement" well before a three-year-old pupil, Nizhana Aalaa, died after being left on a school bus.
Of primary concern to the parents will be the need to find new school places for their children. This could prove to be a difficult task in a sector that is already stretched to capacity. This is particularly so for Al Worood, which is described as a mid-priced school, with annual fees ranging from Dh14,193 for KG1 to Dh31,448 for Grade 12. Cost is likely to have been a major reason why most of the families chose the school.
One major question will be how Adec will run the school until it closes in August. The threshold for this kind of intervention has to be set high because of the disruption that inevitably follows. For example, many of the teachers will be distracted from the task of teaching their students by the need to polish their CVs, hoping the controversy that led to Al Worood’s demise will not colour their future employment prospects. Adec’s authority includes full financial and administrative supervision.
Similarly pressing is the question of whether another company might take over the school and reopen it in the next academic year. After all, there is nothing inherently wrong with the school’s physical structure and allowing a company that runs other high-performing schools in the emirate to take over will clearly reward success.
Another option is to make this a community school, using the model applied successfully by the British School Al Khubairat and the American Community School. These not-for-profit institutions answer to a board of directors comprised of parents and appointees and both rated highly in an Adec review last year.
Parents naturally have a stake in ensuring the school’s success, so long as they are not expected to come up with the capital cost of the school infrastructure. Their input could make the difference in turning around this school and ensure their children get the education they deserve.
if you go
The flights
Emirates flies to Delhi with fares starting from around Dh760 return, while Etihad fares cost about Dh783 return. From Delhi, there are connecting flights to Lucknow.
Where to stay
It is advisable to stay in Lucknow and make a day trip to Kannauj. A stay at the Lebua Lucknow hotel, a traditional Lucknowi mansion, is recommended. Prices start from Dh300 per night (excluding taxes).
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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