Dubai, UAE: Millions of dirhams will be spent on upgrading and establishing new buildings for Pakistani community schools in the emirates of Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Sharjah so that children do not have to miss out on their studies, said a senior official from the Pakistan Consulate on Thursday.
In reaction to a story published by Khaleej Times on April 24, which said that the future of hundreds of children was at stake in Fujairah’s Islamia Higher Secondary School, Brig (Rtd) Syed Javed Hassan, Consul-General of Pakistan in Dubai said that the consulate had given undertaking for construction of the new premises, failure of which could have resulted in closure of these schools.
The undertakings come as the Ministry of Education has issued warnings that no new admissions will be done in schools in Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah until new suitable structures are made. Currently, 600 students are enrolled in the school. In Ras Al Khaimah, a new school building will cost a total of Dh8 million. “New admissions were stopped last year and we gave an undertaking to construct a new building,” said Brig Hassan.
He said that the land had been granted and a title deed had been acquired. “We hope to start the work on the building by the coming academic year and it is expected to be completed in 18 months’ time,” he assured.
He said that the funds would be raised by the consulate, the UAE community and sponsored by the Pakistan government.
Talking about the Fujairah school, Brig Hassan said that 9,600 sqft of land has been granted and Dh19 million was needed for construction of the new building.
A total of 450 students are enrolled in the school while new admissions are put on hold.
“The state of the school building is the same as in Ras Al Khaimah so we had a number of designs made for both buildings,” he said, adding that the process was done over the past six months. He also said that a ground plus one story building will be constructed in Fujairah since it serves 150,000 of the population in Dibba, Fujairah and Khor Fakkan areas.
“The building construction is expected to start soon and will take 18 months or more to complete,” he added.
Talking about the Sharjah School, Brig Hassan said that an Emirati was heading the school and talks were on how to improve matters.
The non-profit schools charge between Dh250 and Dh450 as school fee per month. Despite this low fee structure, the schools had outstanding and pending fee of Dh900,000 for Ras Al Khaimah school and Dh200,000 for Fujairah school accumulated over the past years, he said.
© Khaleej Times
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