More than 200 schools in Abu Dhabi have received the <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/education/2021/08/27/dubai-nursery-tells-the-national-how-it-is-preparing-for-new-term/" target="_blank">green light to reopen </a>on Sunday, the first day of the new term. The city’s education authority carried out intense inspections at 221 private schools over a two-week period, between August 15 and 26. The teams were dispatched to ensure campuses were ready to <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/education/2021/08/27/back-to-school-mass-testing-across-abu-dhabi-ahead-of-first-day-of-term/" target="_blank">safely welcome pupils back</a> to in-class lessons for the 2021/2022 academic year. Each school received a No Objection Certificate to reopen after passing a checklist of requirements, including socially distanced tables, waste bins for PPE and hand sanitising stations placed throughout the building. Schools that failed to meet the strict compliance protocols were given three calendar days to rectify areas of non-compliance before being visited again by the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge’s health and safety team. Schools that did not comply with the new rules after three days were denied the option to reopen for face-to-face learning and were required to return school fees to parents that opted to transfer their children to a different school. When they reopen on Sunday, school management teams are required to submit daily compliance self-check reports to the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (Adec). <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/2021/08/24/what-are-the-new-covid-fines-in-the-uae-full-list-explained/" target="_blank">Fines for non-compliance</a> violations range from Dh10,000 to Dh250,000.
