School hours: New timings affect routines

Around 450 students of Sharjah’s New Indian Model School started 'late shift' classes last week, forcing some parents to make multiple school runs.

First and second graders now attend classes from 11am to 4pm, instead of the usual 7.30am to 12.45pm.

The timings were revised after the Ministry of Education told the school to dismantle around a dozen portable cabins used as overspill classrooms, school principal Shaikh Ali said.

With 2,900 pupils in the school, regular classrooms are running at full capacity, he said.

“I have four children in the school, which means me and my husband have to make five trips a day to pick them up and drop them off,” said Zahra Khatun, a Pakistani working mother. This has upset two of her children’s routines, she added.

Bangladeshi worker Munir Ahmed, another parent, said: “My daughter travels in a taxi, which costs me Dh15 a day. That’s an extra Dh110 on the Dh220 tuition fee [per month]. She has to leave at 10am and gets back around 6pm. When can she rest or study?”

A father, on condition of anonymity, said the school is not providing transport for students affected by the new schedule.

“No one picks up the school phone if we want to register our children for the buses. They’ve asked us to come in person but then there’s no one at the desk there,” he said.

The school has denied the transport problems, adding that the new schedule has been approved by the ministry.

“We are paying an extra Dh35,000 per month to run 16 buses for the 450 students affected by the change. Seventeen buses are used for almost 3,000 students. This is costing us a fortune in extra fuel, drivers’ wages and wear-and-tear,” said Ali.

“But I don’t want to see students leave. We’re constructing another building by the next academic year to accommodate the overflow. Meanwhile, we’re ready to take care of genuine concerns.”

The school’s tuition fees range from Dh220 to Dh395 per month, “attracting a lot of middle and low income families”, Ali said.

“In fact, most parents are happy at the development because it saves them the trip during rush hour. And students are apparently glad that they can now sleep.”
According to Ali, only four parents have lodged a complaint with the school.