Investors plan to open more schools in Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: Investors and operators working with Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) have announced plans to open new schools in the emirate. They stressed the importance of diversity in school fees, size and most importantly location when deciding to build a school, an ADEC statement said on Saturday.

Some of the most influential investors said at an investment forum in Abu Dhabi that they were planning to build their schools in remote areas in the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and the Western Region.

Dino Varkey, Group Executive Director and Board Member-GEMS Education, which owns four schools in Abu Dhabi, is planning to open another seven schools across the emirate.
“We plan to open seven new K-12 schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, which can accommodate up to 30,000 students. The schools will be across the board in terms of curriculum and socio-economic diversity [of pupils],” he said.

"With Adec’s support we plan to open schools in remote locations and are committed to doing so in the outskirts of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain,” Varkey said.

Peter Abraam, Executive Director of the Royal Group and Board Director of Learn Educational Investments that runs Al Rabeh Primary School and submitted a number of applications to Adec for new schools, spoke about providing another 1,300 student seats from Grades 5 to Grade 12 at the new Al Rabeh High School extension.
“We felt it was vital to accommodate high school students in the new school which will be centrally located in Abu Dhabi. We’ve also worked with Adec in accommodating another 2,000 KG-12 students in a new school called the Royal Academy which is located in Mohammad Bin Zayed City,” said Abraam.

Dr B R Shetty, CEO of NMC Healthcare and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Indian School, has invested in a 36,000-square metre plot provided by Adec. The new Indian School is located in Mohammad Bin Zayed City and will serve up to 4,000 students from KG to Grade 4.

“Mohammad Bin Zayed City is a prime location and is ideal for our students since many families live close to the school. All the 4,000 school seats are already full. That’s why we look forward to working with Adec on providing us with other plots so that we can keep on serving the community and fulfilling the increasing demand for school seats,” said Dr Shetty.
Atul Temurnikar, co-founder and Chairman of the Global Schools Foundation (a non-profit organisation based out of Singapore which has 20 schools across seven countries), is currently discussing applications for plots of land with Adec.

“We have requested to build a total of five British and Indian K-12 schools across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and expect to provide over 10,000 seats among both British and Indian curriculum schools. They have not hesitated to provide us with land plots, we are very thankful for their ongoing support throughout,” said Temurnikar.

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