ABU DHABI // The troubled Twenty First Century Private Academy reopened on Monday under new management and a new name – The Philippine Global School.
Fresh yellow paint covered part of the school’s front walls, and a “Welcome!” banner greeted parents who attended orientation and registration for children in grades one, two and three.
The Twenty First Century Private Academy closed in August after Abu Dhabi Education Council revoked the operator’s licence held by American Companies Management Group (ACMG) and its subsidiary, Universal Future Education, for consistently failing to raise the school’s unsatisfactory ratings.
The renovations pointed to a positive, albeit late, start for pupils and staff, said M F, the Filipino mother of a young boy waiting to start second grade. The academic year officially began on August 30.
“They are renovating it, they are painting it, they changed the school name, it’s written on the outside, so it means they are really working on it,” M F said.
“The thing is, I’m just waiting for the school to be open. I think it’s better and the school will become more beautiful, and the environment will be much better, I believe.”
Parents were told classes would resume for all grades, except kindergarten, on Sunday.
Parents have yet to recover the thousands of dirhams they paid in advance to ACMG towards tuition and other fees for the new academic year.
“I pity all the parents who gave their tuition fees ahead of time,” said R L L, whose daughter is starting third grade.
“What’s clear is the new owner will not credit that. You have to pay another set of tuition fees, but they will help. So far they’re trying their best to maintain the old tuition fee with the old students.”
The Philippine Global School is now managed by the same company that runs The Philippine School (TPS) in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Calls to TPS’s managing director, Leticia Maniaul, were not answered.
Although parents were told to bring receipts for payments made to the old management to register their children, these payments would not be honoured by the new management, parents said. “We gave the receipts of the payments we made to the previous school. They collected all the receipts and that’s it. They said that they will inform us,” said J D J, the mother of a nine-year-old pupil.
When registering their children on Monday, parents were told to pay whatever they could as a registration fee, which would be counted towards their children’s full tuition. Some said they paid Dh300, and one said she paid Dh4,000.
TPS has not announced how much it will charge, but many parents said they were told the fees would be similar to what they had paid to the old operator – an average of about Dh6,000 per year.
On-site registration for pupils in grades four, five and six will continue at 9am today; tomorrow for grades seven, eight, nine and 10; and on Thursday for pupils in kindergarten 1 and 2.
rpennington@thenational.ae