DUBAI - Pakistani families who shifted to the UAE recently and parents who want to change their wards’ schools, are finding it extremely difficult to find seats in Pakistani schools for the new academic year, with most of them nearly full.
School heads say the way out is to increase the number of seats in each section and set up more schools to cater to the low-income groups.
However, disappointed parents say they are being turned away from the schools which have few vacancies left to offer, especially in primary classes. They say that due to the stiff competition and criteria of admission in British curricula schools -which Pakistani nationals prefer- they are forced to turn to Pakistani schools for admissions.
"I came to the UAE recently, and since the other schools have already closed admissions, I turned to the Pakistani community schools which also turned me away saying they were over booked," said Rasheed Choudhary, adding that he was running from pillar to post seeking admissions for his two children.
"One of my children requires admission in Grade IV, and the other in Grade V, and it is important that they do not miss an academic year," he adds.
Moazzam Khan's children, who also moved to the UAE recently, are unable to cope with the high education standards of schools here since they have been studying in Urdu-medium institutions in Pakistan. "I have no choice because my children have kept failing in the entry tests for several schools that I applied to. They are having trouble in communicating in English," he explains.
"The best way out for me is to get them admitted in Pakistan schools that follow the Federal Board, a system that my children are used to. But this seems impossible because the existing schools say there are no more seats available," he adds.
On the other hand, Dr Saeed Khan, the newly appointed Consul-General of Pakistan in Dubai, says the solution lies in increasing the number of rooms and seats in the Pakistani schools.
"It is a burning issue, and there are several other matters that the consulate is looking into. We aim at resolving these issues very soon," he makes clear.
Schools concede they are facing the crunch despite running to full capacity and say they would like to admit more children. Presently, the Ministry of Education permits about 25 children in kindergarten, while 30 are permitted in the higher grades.
His Highness Shaikh Rashid Al Maktoum Pakistan School, Dubai, which has admitted over 200 pupils in different grades this year, still has a huge waiting listing of more than 100 students. Asma Malik, the school's acting principal, said, "We have already admitted about 200 students in different classes. Like most schools, we are very short of seats and are forced to turn away parents seeking admissions from Kindergarten to Grade VIII. This is despite the fact that we have added 10 new rooms to the school and now feel we should add 10 more rooms to accommodate students."
Malik explained the huge demand this year could be attributed to the closure of many small villa schools and the growing Pakistani community in the country. "If we could increase at least five seats in each section with the permission of the educational authorities, it would help solve the problem to an extent," added the school head.
Pakistan Islamiah Higher Secondary School, Sharjah, which admitted about 250 students from Kindergarten to Grade VIII, is also facing the pressure with some sections unable to accommodate any new students. Zahid Hussain, principle of the school, noted that it was not just the new families but also long term residents who tend to shift their wards to different schools at the end of an academic year.
"We give priority to siblings of students studying in our school and parents usually prefer to have all their children study in the same school," he said. Hussain says the long term solution lies in encouraging more Pakistani schools to set up base in the UAE.
Colonel Naseer Ahmed, principal of Al Farooq Pakistan School, Dubai, says there is a huge need for schools catering to lower strata of the society. "The demand is definitely huge for Pakistani schools, especially in lower grades, and we are accommodating as many students as we can. We'll soon be moving to a new campus, which can take in more students. There should be more community schools for middle and low-income group families," he said, adding that educational authorities should give them flexibility to accommodate more students.
Fawziah Hassan, director of Sharjah Education Zone, said they hadn't received any such request from the Pakistani schools.
Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the authority that monitors schools in the emirate, categorically stated that exceeding the stated number in each class would be a violation and would not be permitted by the KHDA.
Mohammed Darwish, KHDA's chief of Licensing and Customer Relations, said, "Since the limit has been set, no school has requested this. In fact, our communication with one of the Pakistani schools suggests that they can accommodate up to 1,000 students in their premises -a number that exceeds their current student population, indicating that seats are still available."`
By Asma Ali Zain and Preeti Kannan (Our staff reporters)