Dubai's private schools are reducing the day to six hours during Ramadan. Pawan Singh / The National
Dubai's private schools are reducing the day to six hours during Ramadan. Pawan Singh / The National
Dubai's private schools are reducing the day to six hours during Ramadan. Pawan Singh / The National
Dubai's private schools are reducing the day to six hours during Ramadan. Pawan Singh / The National

Dubai to shorten school days to five hours for Ramadan


Anam Rizvi
  • English
  • Arabic

Private schools in Dubai are to reduce operating hours during the month of Ramadan, the emirate's education authority has confirmed.

Schools will also be closed by noon on Fridays, said an official for the Knowledge and Human Development Authority.

The noon closure on Fridays is to accommodate prayers.

In Sharjah, private schools will also reduce hours with school days cut to no longer than six hours.

“As the holy month of Ramadan approaches, KHDA has set a number of guidelines for Dubai private schools to consider when determining working hours, foremost of which is that the duration of the school day should not exceed five hours, and schools must finish by 12pm (noon) on Fridays,” said Shamma Al Mansouri, director of permits at the KHDA.

Sharjah Private Education Authority has advised schools to reduce hours, however, each school needs to determine their operating hours according to the requirements of their curriculum while following Ramadan regulations.

The daily school hours should not exceed six hours and should be determined by taking into account the stage of the pupil's education.

Many schools often check with parents ahead of Ramadan to see if they would prefer an earlier or later start and finish to the school day.

Simon Crane, head teacher at Brighton College Dubai, said the school timetable will be changed accordingly during Ramadan. Chris Whiteoak/ The National
Simon Crane, head teacher at Brighton College Dubai, said the school timetable will be changed accordingly during Ramadan. Chris Whiteoak/ The National

Simon Crane, head teacher at Brighton College Dubai said the school would operate a compact timetable to ensure they would be able to fit sufficient lessons into the reduced schedule.

“Our community voted overwhelmingly to come to the school on Fridays as our pupils prefer in-class studies rather than online,” said Mr Crane.

“They don’t want to have online distance learning again, as they want to be with their peers in a classroom setting.”

Time for lessons

Pupils in foundation stages one and two should be at the school by 8.30am and will be dismissed by 1pm. Pupils in years one and two must be at the school by 8.15 and go home by 1pm.

Principals said they often struggled with attendance on Fridays during Ramadan and were planning special activities to encourage pupils to attend on such days.

“We'll definitely be reducing hours from Monday to Thursday to 8.15am to 1.15pm,” said Lisa Johnson, principal at American Academy for Girls in Dubai.

On Friday, pupils will be at the school from 8.30am to 11.15pm.

“It's a challenge to have good attendance on those days but we try to schedule most of our activities and events on Fridays to encourage the children to come to school,” said Ms Johnson.

Lisa Johnson, principal at American Academy for Girls in Dubai, said special activities are planned for Fridays during Ramadan. Victor Besa / The National
Lisa Johnson, principal at American Academy for Girls in Dubai, said special activities are planned for Fridays during Ramadan. Victor Besa / The National

“We do lots of house events on Fridays. Each of the houses gets to plan an event and those are all on Fridays trying to children into school on that short day.

“It is a challenge for sure. Especially as most of our pupils are Emirati and traditionally, that's been a family day, and they still have lots of family activities planned for that day. The parents have been very supportive.”

Ghadeer Abu-Shamat, superintendent and chief executive at Gems Al Khaleej International School said the school's operating hours would be from 8.30am to 1pm for the pupils and until 1.50pm for the staff.

Usually, pupils come in at 7.30am but will have a later start at 8.30am during Ramadan. Pupils will go home at 1.15pm.

On Friday the school's operating hours will be from 8.30am to 11.15am.

“Sometimes we do have a special activity, especially during the month of Ramadan on Fridays. We have some competitions or some activities or assemblies taking place,” said Ms Abu-Shamat.

“We plan to ensure that the pupils are encouraged to come to school regardless of whether it's two hours or four hours in school.”

She said they took staff and teachers into consideration while planning operating hours to ensure they could avoid peak traffic hours.

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• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”

• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems

• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.

• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%

• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade

• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels

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Company Profile

Company name: Fine Diner

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Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

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Milestones on the road to union

1970

October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar. 

December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.

1971

March 1:  Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.

July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.

July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.

August 6:  The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.

August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.

September 3: Qatar becomes independent.

November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.

November 29:  At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.

November 30: Despite  a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa. 

November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties

December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.

December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.

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4.30pm: Hive – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Down On Da Bayou, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer

5pm: Dubai Real Estate Centre – (TB) Handicap Dh64,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer

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Key findings
  • Over a period of seven years, a team of scientists analysed dietary data from 50,000 North American adults.
  • Eating one or two meals a day was associated with a relative decrease in BMI, compared with three meals. Snacks count as a meal. Likewise, participants who ate more than three meals a day experienced an increase in BMI: the more meals a day, the greater the increase. 
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PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES

Saturday (UAE kick-off times)

Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)

Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)

West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)

Sunday

Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)

Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)

Everton v Liverpool (10pm)

Monday

Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)

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UAE cricketers abroad

Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.

Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.

Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.

Sreesanth's India bowling career

Tests 27, Wickets 87, Average 37.59, Best 5-40

ODIs 53, Wickets 75, Average 33.44, Best 6-55

T20Is 10, Wickets 7, Average 41.14, Best 2-12

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Updated: March 08, 2024, 3:53 AM