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Aldar makes room for 3,600 students

Abu Dhabi - Top educational institution in Capital to open 2 more schools.

Aldar Academies schools will open two new schools in Abu Dhabi next year.
The Yas Island school on the west side of the island and the Mamoura school on the main Abu Dhabi island will make room for 3,600 students, bringing the total capacity of Aldar Academies' six schools to 9,300.
"The Abu Dhabi city is growing, and the only thing that saddens me is not having enough space for students. I get constant phone calls from parents, asking to accept their students in our schools," said Mohammed Al Mubarak, chairman of Aldar Academies.
"I can't tell you the exact number, but our student waiting list is higher then in the hundreds," he added.
The new Yas Island school, the first of the two to be completed, will offer for the first time in the Aldar Academies network, an American curriculum, based on the US' Massachusetts state curriculum. According to Al Mubarak, this is ranked highest in the US public school system.
"We travelled the world to find the best curriculum for the new Yas Island school, and found that Massachusetts is the strongest," he revealed.
Designed to offer modern, state of the art facilities, the new school is located on the west side of the island, where Aldar is developing a community of about 1,000 villas, along with retails facilities and two schools, the first being the Yas Island school.
Al Mamoura school, on the other hand, is split between a mix primary school and a secondary school for girls, offering the English national curriculum and the international baccalaureate diploma programme. Since its first school in 2007, Aldar Academies has invested to date Dh642 millions in its six schools - five in Abu Dhabi and one in Al Ain.
As Al Mubarak said: "Our student body is around 30 per cent Emirati and 70 per cent expatriate for over 100 nationalities and we aim to keep this number consistent."
Another aim for Aldar Academies is to introduce boarding schools to Abu Dhabi, as well as Arabic and Islamic curriculum, including ancient and modern Emirati history.
UAE is one of the very few countries in the world that doesn't teach its history in schools. Al Mubarak hopes to change all that by working with the Abu Dhabi Education Council and experts in the field to establish an Emirati history curriculum.
"It may be introduced in our schools as early as next academic year." Aldar is also studying about market demand for boarding schools in Abu Dhabi.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com