When relocating to a different country with your family, your top priority is helping your kids settle into a routine quickly. Ensuring this smooth transition eases the adjustment for the entire family. Disrupting their schooling too much can adversely affect their performance, impacting their academic growth. To avoid this, you should enroll them in a school quickly.
The UAE boasts a great education system, with about 92 percent of its population being literate. A few things have changed in 2021 that could affect the admission process, age criteria, fees in Indian international schools, among other things.
Here’s an analysis of the new rules and regulations introduced by the Ministry of Education.
School admission age
By law, the UAE requires parents to enroll all children in compulsory school education at ages 5–6. This means that any child over five years old should already be attending school. The country, however, is home to a lot of international schools that accept kids as young as three years.
This young enrolment age is among the first things that have changed this year. The Ministry announced that, starting January 2021, children must be at least four years old at the beginning of the school year. Only children meeting this age requirement are eligible to join school. This rule applies to children entering Abu Dhabi schools offering international curricula.
School year start dates.
Since the school year officially starts only in September, younger students cannot enter in phases. Children who reach the required age during the year must wait until the next school year to enroll. Instead, they have to wait until the new school year starts to join.
If you move to the UAE during the school year, you can enroll your child, but enrollment depends on their curriculum and your location. There’s a chance your child might have to retake the FS1, FS2, or KG1 entrance exams if the school year has already started. There are no exceptions.
For families moving from areas that use the Gregorian calendar school year, relocating to match the September start could prove tricky since your child will not have completed the school year. If so, the school will require them to repeat the academic year because they did not complete it. It remains the same in all emirates except for Dubai, where things are a bit more flexible. If your child completes two terms or semesters and demonstrates they can handle the next class, the school can promote them.
That said, if your child is studying the UK, US or IB curricula, the admission process will depend on the international school you have selected. A few international schools have specialised programs for candidates switching between the same curricula. Hence, it is advisable to get in touch with the respective school counsellor to understand the admission process.
Transfer documents
Children moving to UAE schools are required to have a transfer certificate from their former school. This document is a letter often completed by the principal detailing your child’s schooling details. These would include their school attendance performance, the date, year group, and class level, start and end date of the academic year, and cases for promotion to the next grade.
Such documents must contain an official letterhead, signature, and school stamp. The transfer letter is valid for 30 days as learners are not permitted to be out of school longer than that in an academic year.
Also, depending on where your child was studying, the transfer letter might need to be attested by the regional education authority, Ministry of foreign affairs, the UAE embassy, and on arrival in the country, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The school you want to register in should provide all the details and requirements for attestation. The exact requirements will depend on your circumstances. All these documents should be in English or Arabic; if not, you should correctly translate them.
Final thoughts
The UAE Ministry of Education has made these and other changes to help ease enrolment. While these regulations might seem like a lot, they are intended to help the learners get the best from their education. The key to getting settled once you move is practical planning, and since most of these procedures can be done online, you can complete them before you move.
The admission process in international schools is more straightforward as the institutions primarily cater to the expatriate community. It is advisable to get in touch with the admission counsellor of such schools.