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Thousands of children return to schools tomorrow

Abu Dhabi - New academic year begins for Indian and Pakistani schools tomorrow

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It's back to school on Sunday for thousands of students in the UAE.
While the new academic year started for Indian and Pakistani schools, it's reopening time after spring break for government and private ones. As usual, shops have stacked all types of school bags and stationery items, and slashed prices for students.
Many hypermarkets have up to 90 per cent mark-offs on bags and other stationery items to woo parents. Not surprisingly, the tag line was: 'It's not an April fool's joke'.  

Database of students will be made available on e-platform All the academic affairs and personal details of school students in the UAE can be obtained at the click of a button on a soon-to-be-launched e-platform. Speaking at a workshop organised on Sunday for introducing the ministry's strategy 2021/2017, Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, said that the new e-platform features a comprehensive and specialised database for all the school students across the country. "It will be very instrumental for us to come up with programmes, projects and initiatives to achieve our educational objectives through assessing the students' capabilities and academic preferences based on their personal skills and talents," he said. Al Hammadi stressed that all the ministry's sectors need to work more closely for achieving its strategic goals and adopting the best educational practices, thus transforming the aspirations and visions into work plans to be deployed across schools in the country.- Wam

"We had the offer running from the start of the month. School bags with cartoon characters and trolleys are the favourites. Some bag models priced Dh210-220 went for Dh35-40 and others at Dh180-190 got sold for Dh20-22. Pencil cases for Dh40 or so were grabbed at Dh6-7. We ran out of stock eventually," a hypermarket official said.
Another hypermarket, which ran a similar offer ended up selling 1,500 bags in just three days.  Children are excited about the new academic year, as parents made last-minute purchases. 
Anish Raveendran's daughter Arshita is just starting KG1 at Abu Dhabi Indian School Al Wathba. "I have bought the uniform and my wife Remya is picking up the books. Arshita has an old bag from her nursery days, but I will buy her a new one soon," said Anish, thinking about an offer at a shop in Mussafah. 
For parents like Anish, who have tiny tots travelling to Al Wathba or other faraway places, their worry is about the early timings and safety.  "She needs to start at 6.50am for an 8am school start," he said, worried about the traffic snarls in the mornings.
The Abu Dhabi Police, meanwhile, is ready to enable safe traffic in the city, to keep it safe for students at the start of the school year.
Brigadier Khalifa Mohammad Al Khaili, director of traffic and patrols directorate in the central operations sector said: "School bus drivers who fail to put the stop sign when student boards or leaves the bus - or in case of noncompliance with traffic instructions - will be fined Dh500 and slapped with 6 black points." 
If a motorist fails to stop the vehicle when a school bus driver flashes the stop sign, there's a fine of Dh1,000 and 10 black points.
He also noted that traffic patrols will be specially assigned to ensure smooth flow of traffic on roads and around schools.
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com