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Public school admissions in Abu Dhabi from Feb 15

Applications to be accepted according to geographical areas

Abu Dhabi: Registration for public schools in Abu Dhabi for the next academic year will start on Sunday. The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) calls on parents to register their children according to the schedule in order to accommodate everyone at schools in their areas.

Enrolment for Emirati students, GCC nationals, presidential decree holders, students of diplomatic missions and orphans sponsored by UAE nationals will be from February 15 till March 19. For expatriate students, meanwhile, it is from March 15 to 19.

Mohammad Salem Al Dhaheri, Adec’s executive director of school operations, said Adec has adopted an online registration process through the Enterprise Student Information System (eSIS) to make enrolment easier for parents.

“They need to visit schools once and register their children using student’s Emirates ID card. The use of ID has helped ensure accuracy of information fed into eSIS and consequently will result in quick and authenticated student registration,” he said.

For kindergarten, the minimum admission age should be four years by December 31, 2015.

Noting the 10-15 per cent annual growth rate of students in public schools, Hamid Abdulla, manager of student services at Adec said: “Parents have to register during the period we provide so that they can find seats in their preferred school.”

Applications are accepted according to geographical areas and the number of students is approved by Adec (a maximum number of 23 students for KG, 25 for primary education and 30 for secondary education).

Al Dhaheri said when schools reached the maximum number of students, new registrants will be put on the waiting list and those not on the eSIS will be rejected.

After registration, parents will receive an SMS informing them of their child’s school name. In case seats are not available, students will be registered in other schools near their residential area and school transportation will be provided.

“We will distribute students according to the availability of schools (but to) schools closest to their area of residence,” Abdulla said.

According to him, all students on the waiting list last year were accommodated. “Our target is that no national student stays at home.” For new students or those not yet in the eSIS, including those coming from abroad and transferring from the Northern Emirates, students should have a 90 per cent average especially in Science and Math.   

Expat students can register online (www.adec.ac.ae) and pay the annual tuition fee of Dh6,000.

olivia@khaleejtimes.com