It seems like a perfectly normal scene: children dressed in crisp white dishdashas and others in trousers are crowded into a grade seven maths class at the Mohammad Bin Khaled Secondary School.
But the time is 4pm, and the school day has already ended for most pupils. This boys' school is one of 13 state schools in Abu Dhabi that operates two shifts to double its capacity: a regular school day and an evening school.
However, the second shift at Mohammad Bin Khaled runs shorter, from 3.30pm to 8pm and from 3pm to 5pm during Ramadan.
Resources at such evening schools are generally limited and they have fewer periods and teaching hours than regular state schools, which already lag behind the international average, according to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) admits the shift system is flawed. At the start of the school year, just after gaining control of all 305 public schools in the emirate, it pledged to close the evening schools and move an estimated 8,000 children to regular schools within three years.
"The children come to school at the end of the day and they are not energised any more," said Dr Mugheer al Khaili, director general of Adec. "They really give little instruction for children."
He added that evening schools created a number of problems for families. "It's a safety issue for the children. They stay at home when their parents are at work, where they are not under anybody's eyes. When the parents come back home, the children are out and there is no good quality time to be spent between the parents and the children."
Enrolment of new evening school pupils stopped this year, and next year Adec will start moving pupils to private day schools. The Khalifa Fund will help pay tuition fees for those children who are eligible.
Evening schools were started in 1986 to accommodate the children of expatriate families who were not eligible to attend state schools. At the time, the children of expatriate government workers were allowed to study in state schools, but children of expatriates employed in the private sector were denied entry.
In 2001, the Cabinet banned all expatriates from the state school system, with an exception made for families in Ras al Khaimah.
Five years later, the Cabinet amended the rules, allowing one in five pupils at a state school to be expatriate.
However, expatriate children must be high achievers - their marks from the previous school year must place them in the top 10 per cent of pupils. They also need to pass an entry exam in Arabic, English and maths. Their parents also pay higher fees than those charged in evening schools.
Because of this, evening schools continue to provide a service for families who cannot get their children into a regular public school or afford private school tuition. With annual tuition as low as Dh2,200 (US$600) they are the only option for many. The pupils are mostly from other Arabic-speaking countries.
Because they offer a means of earning additional income, the evening schools are staffed by teachers who work during the day as well.
"The teachers are from the government schools. They come the next morning very exhausted," said Dr Khaili.
Expatriate teachers make as little as Dh3,225 per month in the UAE, but in Abu Dhabi, teachers were given a housing allowance at the start of the school year, which increased salaries by Dh6,000 per month.
Teachers in the evening programme at the Mohammad Bin Khaled school are paid roughly Dh40 for each 40-minute class. They are allowed to teach as many as 12 such classes per week.
Mounting living expenses led Osama al Said, an Egyptian who has been teaching English here for 17 years, to take on extra hours at the Mohammad Bin Khaled school.
"The salary before was not enough," he said, adding that the housing allowance has improved his situation.
But Mr Said, who works at the Khalifa bin Zayed Secondary School during the day, said the long hours were difficult. "Sometimes it's very enjoyable because the students here are brilliant, but it is very tiring after a day teaching in another school."
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Ukraine 2 (Yaremchuk 06', Yarmolenko 27')
Portugal 1 (Ronaldo 72' pen)
Company%20Profile
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Diriyah%20project%20at%20a%20glance
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
FIRST TEST SCORES
England 458
South Africa 361 & 119 (36.4 overs)
England won by 211 runs and lead series 1-0
Player of the match: Moeen Ali (England)
The 10 Questions
- Is there a God?
- How did it all begin?
- What is inside a black hole?
- Can we predict the future?
- Is time travel possible?
- Will we survive on Earth?
- Is there other intelligent life in the universe?
- Should we colonise space?
- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us?
- How do we shape the future?
Company%20profile
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
About Proto21
Date started: May 2018
Founder: Pir Arkam
Based: Dubai
Sector: Additive manufacturing (aka, 3D printing)
Staff: 18
Funding: Invested, supported and partnered by Joseph Group
Dunbar
Edward St Aubyn
Hogarth
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE
Starring: Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, Jenny Ortega
Director: Tim Burton
Rating: 3/5
Five famous companies founded by teens
There are numerous success stories of teen businesses that were created in college dorm rooms and other modest circumstances. Below are some of the most recognisable names in the industry:
- Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg and his friends started Facebook when he was a 19-year-old Harvard undergraduate.
- Dell: When Michael Dell was an undergraduate student at Texas University in 1984, he started upgrading computers for profit. He starting working full-time on his business when he was 19. Eventually, his company became the Dell Computer Corporation and then Dell Inc.
- Subway: Fred DeLuca opened the first Subway restaurant when he was 17. In 1965, Mr DeLuca needed extra money for college, so he decided to open his own business. Peter Buck, a family friend, lent him $1,000 and together, they opened Pete’s Super Submarines. A few years later, the company was rebranded and called Subway.
- Mashable: In 2005, Pete Cashmore created Mashable in Scotland when he was a teenager. The site was then a technology blog. Over the next few decades, Mr Cashmore has turned Mashable into a global media company.
- Oculus VR: Palmer Luckey founded Oculus VR in June 2012, when he was 19. In August that year, Oculus launched its Kickstarter campaign and raised more than $1 million in three days. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion two years later.