Change in school age cut-off proposed as FNC member points out enrolment delays
School admissions are not something to look forward to for most UAE parents with babies born just after the 31 August deadline, who can’t enrol their children in schools or nursery. They are too young to go to school, yet too old to go to preschool, and they must wait a full year to start.
The matter was discussed at the Federal National Council on Wednesday and a petition has been filed asking the Ministry of Education to change the cut-off date as most local children are born in October and November.
"Why would the child miss a year of school because he was born several days or weeks after 31 August?". Saeed Al Aabdi, who is representing Ras Al Khaimah on the Council.
He cited a ministerial order from 2021 limiting a child’s age of kindergarten entry to at least four years old on 31 August of the year of entry. He asked the Education Minister Sarah Al Amiri to make a three-month exception to that.
‘They didn’t have October and November in mind when they made that decision,’ he said, citing a report by Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi in 2017 that indicated most children born there were born in October and November.
"A lot of parents are still hit by education policies that are based on the best practices in other countries. The problem is when we do international practices, we don’t really grasp them.
The 2021 resolution was based on a similar practice in the UK, he added, but there are still exemptions where the child can go to school if they were born three months after the agreed age.
"The ministry just backed half of the UK policy, why not the whole UK policy and an exemption period?"’
FNC Speaker Saqr Ghobash, the council’s top echelon, used an example from his own life, as he moved with his family to the US to become ambassador in 2006. His eldest daughter was in kindergarten when they moved out, ‘and we figured she would go to first grade but the school said her age was for kindergarten only.
"But they said we could go to an independent testing centre to see if she’s healthy enough to be put in First Grade and she passed," he said, "so there may be practical options".
The speaker of the council then said, "School entrance age is one of the major problems facing almost all of us, the public wants your excellency to be positive and we pray that the ministry shows sympathy and gives good answers".
Al Amiri, minister, told reporters that the entry age was determined according to academe assessments of students’ status as per their age and growth.
"The resolution will increase students’ mastery of the learning material and ease their movement from one grade to another in national and international schools," she said.
"All of us here today went to school and were great students with no age limits. Don’t make this choice now, " he called on the minister.
"Hear parents who are grappling with this," I say. The choice is having social ramifications too. " Many of the mothers-to-be are going to caesarean birth so their babies don’t miss out on Aug. 31," he said.
They’re having to pay nannies for another year of out-of-school time for working mothers, and that’s not cheap.
"If you take one year and the kid is already in school and finally he gets there, then he may get bullied because he is older than the other children," Al Aabdi continued, ‘you will not lose anything if you change this decision.
He said it was an "abuse taught to our children today".
The age of admission in each country — UAE among them — is checked on a regular basis, said Al Amiri. ‘And we will investigate the nurseries refusing children four years later,’ she concluded.
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