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The great Indian dilemma: Schools

Indian parents are calling for more investment in schools offering the Indian curriculum in the Capital due to the current shortage — which is leading parents to send their children back to India for education.

The call was made after hundreds of students still could not get admissions despite the approval received by some schools from the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) to increase the number of seats — particularly in Kindergarten and the lower grades. Classes in Indian schools begin this month.

This was a perennial problem, according to Dr Abraham John. He noted that he had similar problems three years ago when his daughter was to take admission in Grade 1 but a friend managed to get his daughter a seat at the Sherwood Academy.

“Many schools have come up after that, yet there is a shortage. My friend is sending his family back home because his child couldn’t get admission,” he said.

There are currently about 18 Indian schools in the Abu Dhabi island, all of which are running at full capacity. The shortages were primarily caused by more Indian families moving to the emirate, and with the population of expat school-going kids going up additional demand has been created. But this year’s dilemma was aggravated by the closure of the villa schools.

According to parents, schools offering curricula other than the CBSE curriculum also charge double or triple the fees than the Indian schools.

“The CBSE curriculum is very rigid; it’s a very good system. Many Indians are succeeding and doing very well in many places. I personally prefer this because the curriculum prepares our children better,” John said.

Prasad KP, who has been looking for a school for his daughter since November, said that enrolling her in another curriculum may become a problem in future. “I thought about that, but if I enrol her in British school and later change to the CBSE syllabus, she will lose one year,” he said.

After all his attempts failed, Prasad has enrolled his four-year-old in Kerala and plans to send his family back home. He was one of the over 2,500 applicants for a raffle draw for one of the 75 seats available at the Abu Dhabi Indian School in February.

But last week he got a call from the Bharatiya Vidhya Bhavan (BVB) Private International English School in Mohammed Bin Zayed City.

“I think Adec has increased the number of seats at BVB, that’s why we were called,” he said, expressing his relief. However, next year’s admission was not yet confirmed and would depend only on the completion of a building block that is currently under construction.

The new Bright Riders School in Mohammed Bin Zayed City, which is opening its doors for the first time, has received approval from Adec to increase its admission in KG1 — Grade 1 last month, where there were “actual shortages”.

Alphonso Francis, business development manager at the school, said that the school had been receiving hundreds of calls every day for admission, but has only accepted 500 on their waiting list.

Four hundred seats had opened-up, including a further 200 in KG1 (total 450), 140 in KG2 (total 390) and 60 in Grade 1 (total 360), and all were “filled quickly in just two days,” Francis said.

“There will be 30 children per class, but only for this year because of the shortage. Next year the number will be going down to 25 per class,” he told Khaleej Times.

“We estimate that there may be around 4,000-6,000 students trying to get in any Indian school,” he added.

olivia@khaleejtimes.com