H.E. Hussain Ibrahim Al-Hammadi, Minister of Education, has praised the preparations and massive work done recently to provide an ideal environment for the students in the new academic year 2021-2022 in all the country's schools, higher education institutions, institutes, training centers, and nurseries. He said that the aim was to ensure that the educational process would run in a healthy, safe environment that considered the precautionary and preventive measures. He noted that with the beginning of the new academic year, UAE once again proved it had exceptional capabilities, preventive measures, resilience, and wisdom that enabled it to face challenges and make decisions that serve the interests of the school community in particular and the entire society in general.
He added that while education was at stake globally, UAE had anticipated the future and employed all its capabilities to achieve education sustainability. He noted that this had been achieved thanks to the vision and support of the wise leadership of the country and orchestrated efforts of the educational and administrative staff, students, and their parents. He pointed out that the team spirit had prevailed and had been a decisive factor in the continuation of the learning journey.
H.E. has congratulated the educational and administrative staff, students, and all the workers in the educational institutions on the beginning of the new academic year. He added that this massive effort was not random, but the outcome of dedicated efforts, commitment, and collaborative work that sought the interest of the students, teachers, and education continuity.
He thanked the education community, which he described as harmonious. He added that its achievements and performance of its duties and obligations amidst a health situation that had negatively affected the entire world and public life, including education, was "pioneering." He noted that the preemptive action and good planning, guided by the wise leadership of the country, however, had provided stable conditions and allowed student to pursue their education.
He added: "We have achieved many educational gains. This experience also had positive reflections on everyone, including students, teaching staff, parents, officials and workers in the educational field, universities, and society, namely boosting the confidence in our abilities to deal resiliently and proactively with various circumstances. It also allowed us to make our educational system and institutions completely ready for all circumstances, thanks to the knowledge, technology tools, and experiences we possess. We will continue, however, to work and develop our educational system, in order to remain competitive and achieve education sustainability."
H.E. wished the students a positive academic year, in which they achieve success and excellence. He stressed the need to utilize past experiences to make a distinctive educational leap in the various elements of the educational process. He also called to combine the efforts of teaching staff, especially in this phase, and provide a safe, encouraging, and healthy environment that guides the students safely to build well-educated generations that would build the country, maintain the gains, and develop the capabilities and civilization of the nation.
H.E. pointed out that there was an updated general framework to operate the educational institutions that suited the new reality, which involved safety and preventive measures that would be implemented during the current academic year, in a manner that would serve the interests of the students during the normal functioning of the educational process. He added that the best possible precautionary measures had been taken to ensure the safety of the students of higher education and public education institutions, for the safe return of students and teaching staff, in order to achieve an ideal beginning of the academic year.
He stressed that the updated general framework to operate the educational institutions had outlined the procedures and steps that would be taken before the start of the school day, as well as during the school day. He added that it had also organized everything related to university studies, in terms of health measures and the requirements and conditions for the time the students spend during the day.
He pointed out that steps had been taken to ensure the continuity of study in higher education institutions and that education would require in person attendance in all disciplines that require attending laboratories or research, as well as students of the graduation year.
He said that the updated general framework for the operation of educational facilities was integrated from all aspects, in terms of adding flexible handling mechanisms that enhance the concepts of learning within the school environment to include early childhood, public and private education, higher education, and training institutes and centers.
H.E. pointed out that school activities; healthy nutrition; transportation services in educational facilities; public health; supervision; support services; travel; curricula; awareness and training; health, environment, and safety system; safety procedures, vaccination; extracurricular activities; continuous monitoring and follow-up; the role of the parents; and all other matters that affect the school community had undergone disciplined updates, in line with the new reality. He added that this would achieve the highest efficacy, to ensure running smooth school day without obstacles, according to the approved and updated protocol.
28/08/2021