Private school pupils in Dubai will enjoy a full week off for Eid Al Fitr, the festival marking the end of Ramadan.
Education regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), announced the decision on Tuesday.
It means pupils will be off from Monday, May 2 to Friday, May 6, returning on Monday, May 9.
The move puts Dubai schools in line with most government and public sector workers, who have a nine-day holiday, including the weekends. Authorities in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are yet to confirm dates for private schools.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation said private sector employees are entitled to Saturday, April 30 until Shawwal 3 in the Islamic calendar.
This means the holiday will be from Saturday, April 30, and last until Tuesday, May 3 or Wednesday, May 4, depending on the start date of Eid and the sighting of the new moon.
It is up to private sector employers to decide if they wish to be closed for the remainder of the week, on Thursday and Friday, which some are expected to.
Rashmi Nandkeolyar, principal at Delhi Private School Dubai, said: "We are very excited. This is like a breath of calm after the storm of the pandemic.
"The excitement is that we finally get to have a break and with a new term for all of us, there is a sense of excitement in the air.
"But many of our pupils have board exams on, so many of us will be working through part of the break."
Indian curriculum CBSE exams started on Tuesday and close to 600 pupils will be sitting them at the school. Ms Nandkeolyar said some pupils may travel home for the break, but others may choose to stay in the UAE and enjoy the Eid celebrations here.
Companies opt to extend Eid break
Xylem, a global water technology company, decided to give its just over 100 employees in the UAE the entire week off for Eid.
Jennifer Gillespie, its director of human resources for Middle East and Turkey, said: "We were just sitting in a leadership team meeting today and as we discussed it my children's school Whatsapp messages started pinging to inform me that Dubai’s private schools had announced the week off. It aligned nicely but it did not form part of our decision making."
“If a leave falls on a weekend, we carry it forward in to the week so that was carried to Thursday. We all tend to work from home on a Friday so we decided that we would just give the full week off.
“It’s the end of Ramadan and people are super-tired. We recognise that and we just want people to have a good break with their families. Many of the team have already booked holidays."
While the extra day off on Thursday is a token of appreciation from the organisation, the day off on Friday will be deducted from employee’s leave balance, she said.
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Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
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Rating: 4/5
The alternatives
• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.
• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.
• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.
• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.
• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases - but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Directed by: Robby Grewal
Cast: John Abraham, Mouni Roy, Jackie Shroff and Sikandar Kher
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
