Abu Dhabi community school project helped 50,000 students

More than 50,000 students and parents have benefitted from Abu Dhabi community school programmes, according to the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (Adek).

The school community projects by Adek provides 25 programmes covering different sports, culture, technology, science and health activities.

Adek had earlier issued operational guidelines for all schools to regulate workflow and processes and will provide more programmes in future to meet community requirements.

The daily activities and programmes include swimming sessions, English, IT courses, art workshops, student tutoring classes, football, basketball, aquatic exercises/workouts, aerobics, science workshops, self-defence training, gymnastics, poetry and theatrical performances, health awareness, social counselling lectures and other activities.

Nasser Khamis, Adek's extracurricular activities section manager stated that "the community schools initiative provides students and the community with various activities to enhance student and parent engagement in school programmes, while promoting social, sports, cultural and scientific programmes amongst the community".

"Community schools enhance a student's academic achievements, while increasing their engagement in activities and programmes that are not conflicting with their classes," explained Khamis, emphasising that community centres aim to promote community engagement, provide distinctive programmes through professional trainers, optimize the use of state-of-the-art facilities, enhance social cohesion and boost community harmony.

Adek conducted a number of workshops and meetings with community school officials and project supervisors as well as with students and their parents to receive feedback in order to further enhance the project. Such feedback resulted in signing a memorandum of understanding with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council and more collaboration agreements are expected to be signed with other entities and institutions in order to better serve the community at large.

reporters@khaleejtimes.com