High school pupils at some state schools in Dubai and the Northern Emirates will have the choice of studying Mandarin when classes resume next month.
The Ministry of Education has hired 24 teachers and four education managers from China to lead a new pilot programme across 10 public high schools this academic year. The elective will be open to students from Grade 10, though which schools are involved were not revealed.
“China is growing into one of the largest economies in the world and, throughout our strategic relationships with them, we have seen their technology evolve in terms of research and development,” said Marwan Al Sawaleh, assistant undersecretary at the MoE. “Their overall education system and policies are really expanding and becoming strong, and we are trying to open this opportunity for our high school graduates.”
The new language class is one of a number of new initiatives announced by Minister of Education Hussain Al Hammadi and Minister of State for Public Education Jameela Al Muhairi on Tuesday in advance of the new academic year, which will begin on September 4 for teachers and September 10 for pupils.
Mr Al Hammadi said maintenance work had been completed in 24 public schools and 16 kindergarten centres this summer to prepare the buildings for the pupils’ return. The Ministry of Infrastructure Development is also working with the MoE to upgrade facilities at 27 more state schools.
The minister said the MoE built or upgraded 40 learning resource centres and will distribute 29,000 laptops and tablets among students and teachers and equip computer labs for grades four, five, seven and eight with 13,800 computers.
“Every three to five years, you have to bring in new software and hardware,” said Mr Al Sawaleh.
But this year the computer equipment is especially critical as most exams from grades six through to 12 will be written electronically to provide the ministry with better and more data on students’ strengths and weaknesses.
For the first time this year, school principals will be in direct control of their textbook inventory as the ministry launched a new ordering system to facilitate and expedite shipping, so that schools order directly from the printer when they require more stock.
“It’s electronic, online; now the schools apply as per the number of students and the cycle and this request goes to the printing company itself and then they deliver it from the printing plant to the school,” said Mr Al Sawaleh.
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The move is in response to distribution problems last year that led to the late delivery of textbooks. Officials say they have also addressed the issue of culturally insensitive or inaccurate content that had been published in the new textbooks.
“We have been working with different committees to look at the content, to look at the pictures, to modify according to our culture,” said Minister Al Muhairi. “We have been working with different people across the UAE to review our textbooks when it comes to cultural sensitivities and making sure that the language is proper.”
The MoE said it has hired 1,567 new teachers since January. Officials noted the number was higher than in the past because of the new curriculum, which was introduced last year, changed the language of instruction from Arabic to English for subjects including science, maths and health for middle and high school students in the advanced or “elite” stream.
The ministry also recently added new subjects including life skills, health science, business and entrepreneurship, technology and entrepreneurship and creative design and thinking for high school pupils, all taught by native English speakers. Following its successful pilot launch last year, the new moral education subject will roll out across public and private schools to teach students ethics, tolerance and civic education. Social studies has also been revamped for public school pupils beginning this year, said Mr Al Sawaleh.
Those in grades 10 to 12 will be required to take physics as one of their science subjects.
“For grade 10, they will study physics and science, and for grade 11, they will study physics and chemistry,” said Mr Al Sawaleh. “For grade 12, they will study physics and they can choose between chemistry or science. This is the beginning. We are working on developing more electives in the coming years in science and even the other subjects. What we want to say is that it is continuing, it is developing each year.”
Inspections of public schools, which only began in Dubai and the Northern Emirates for the first time in April with 162 schools, will continue this year. The MoE school inspections are being led by the Tribal Group, which was awarded a 12-month contract worth Dh16.6 million in April. Last week, the group announced it will be the exclusive inspector for Abu Dhabi Education Council after it was awarded a two-year Dh40.3m contract to review both public and private schools in the emirate.
Plans are also under way to expand the MoE inspections to private schools in the Northern Emirates.
“We finished 50 per cent [of the public school inspections] last [academic] year and this year we will continue and introduce it to the private schools also in the Northern Emirates,” said Mr Al Sawaleh.
Ministry of Education academic calendar
Teachers and staff return to schools for professional training on Monday, September 4. Pupils go back to school on Sunday, September 10. The winter break will start on December 17 for staff and students. Staff will return two weeks later, on January 2, for professional training. Students have four weeks off during the winter and won’t have to be back until January 14. The spring break will begin on March 25, with staff returning on April 1 and pupils on April 8. The academic year will end on July 5 for pupils and July 12 for teachers and staff.
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'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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RESULTS
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Winner AF Almomayaz, Hugo Lebouc (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer)
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Winner Karaginsky, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
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4pm Maiden (TB) Dh 60,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Bladesmith, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar.
4.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh 68,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Shanaghai City, Fabrice Veron, Rashed Bouresly.
Building boom turning to bust as Turkey's economy slows
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage - hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle.
Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors.
The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry - a key sector - as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn.
After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 per cent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year.
The country has been hit by high inflation and a currency crisis in August. The lira lost 28 per cent of its value against the dollar in 2018 and markets are still unconvinced by the readiness of the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to tackle underlying economic issues.
The villas close to the town centre of Mudurnu in the Bolu region are intended to resemble European architecture and are part of the Sarot Group's Burj Al Babas project.
But the development of 732 villas and a shopping centre - which began in 2014 - is now in limbo as Sarot Group has sought bankruptcy protection.
It is one of hundreds of Turkish companies that have done so as they seek cover from creditors and to restructure their debts.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
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Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
