Category: News

Kazakh national Lyudmila Zykova may only be in Year 3 but she has been selected to be part of the UAE National Ice-Skating Team.

Although, she is not allowed to compete immediately given her young age and according to the UAE regulations, but she will be participating in international competitions as soon as she turns eight.

“I have already begun training with the other skaters in the national team, having secured special a KHDA approval to leave school early at 2pm to attend these training sessions. My school has fully been supporting and cheering for me, all the way,” says The GEMS Royal Dubai School pupil.

Lyudmila was born in Kazakhstan in May 2015 and moved to Dubai the same year with her family when she was two months old. She has been learning to ice skate since a young age.

“I first got interested in ice skating when I was three years old. I saw a competition on the television and loved it. So, I asked my mother if I could start learning it. I’m the first skater in my family,” says the little girl proudly.

She adds, “As soon as I told my mother I want to ice skate, she looked for a good trainer and the right place for me to develop my skills. I train regularly after school and on the weekends. In September, I went through a series of auditions to join the UAE National Skating Team. To compete nationally, skaters have to be eight years old, so I’ll only officially join the team next year. But that hasn’t stopped me from already training and working with the team to make sure I’m ready as soon as I turn eight. I’m really excited and proud to be part of the UAE National Team.”

While the year three student trains regularly for long hours, but her parents also make sure that she is not deprived of the usual things that children of her age typically enjoy.

“School and training take up a large chunk of my day, I still love to keep active by visiting the park and playing with my friends,” says the Dubai resident.

Shedding light on her future plans, and how she perseveres to be the best, Lyudmila avers, “Ice-skating is hard work, but I enjoy the challenge. I love to learn and test my skills on the ice. My dream is to become a professional ice-skating champion one day. I want to go for gold at the Olympics in the near future.”

Select schools in Dubai have chosen to start later in the morning so that their students can benefit from more sleep.

Pupils in the UAE typically need to arrive at school between 7am and 7.30am, meaning they often need to wake up between 5.30am to 6.30am, depending on start and travel time.

Head teachers of schools that have backed a later start said they have seen pupils’ punctuality, attendance and well-being improve after they got some extra sleep.

When Bloom World Academy opened its doors in August 2022, it was one of the first schools in the city to operate a 9am to 4pm school day, with lessons getting under way more than an hour after most schools in the emirate.

Dubai British School Jumeirah Park moved start times from 7.30am to 8.15am in August 2022.

Rebecca Coulter, principal at the school, said she had received feedback that classes were starting too early and, after consulting parents, decided to go for a later start.

“Everyone was struggling with that early start. We’ve been more creative with how we use the time within the school day, so we have played around with the lesson, break and lunch times,” said Ms Coulter.

“We have seen a positive impact on our pupils’ well-being, particularly with high-school pupils.

“There is a lot of research on the brains of teenagers and the optimal time for children to come to school — that played a part. We took evidence and input from pupils.

“We have seen an increase in the number of pupils opting for extra-curricular activities since the later start.”

The school day is now from 8.15am to 3.30pm.

The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that not getting enough sleep is common among high school pupils and is associated with health risks such as obesity, use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs, as well as poor academic performance.

The American Academy of Paediatrics recommends middle and high schools to start at 8.30am or later to ensure pupils get enough sleep.

Jumeira Baccalaureate School shifted their school day to a later start in August 2021 and has already seen punctuality improve.

Earlier, pupils had to be in school by 7.30 and the first lesson would start at 7.45am, but as of August 2021, pupils have to be in school for an 8.15am start and their first lesson is at 8.30am.

Younger pupils finish at 2.50pm while those in grades 11 and 12 finish the school day at 3.30pm.

Erika Elkady, vice principal at the school, said the initiative was meant to boost well-being by allowing children to get more sleep.

“The Dubai Student Well-being census data showed that sleep was actually quite a worry and that pupils were not getting enough sleep,” she said.

She added that some pupils thought they could catch on sleep at the weekend and stay up late on weeknights.

“Research shows that sleep is extremely important for development,” she said.

“We get feedback from parents saying that they start the day so much calmer. There is no rush and no chaos in the house, and they can have breakfast as a family.”

The schools had to receive permission from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority before they could change their schedules.

Ms Elkady said pupils who were sleep-deprived were often cranky and would get into arguments.

“We started to look into sleep research and what we could do better, and that’s why we decided to start later,” she said.

“We feel that there is actually a huge improvement in punctuality data, there is an improvement in attendance data and in our behaviour management.”

For Khadeeja AlShirawi, a grade 11 Emirati pupil at Jumeira Baccalaureate School, a later start means she can have breakfast with family and pray before starting the day.

“I remember not wanting to wake up in the morning because it was too early, and I might have had to complete a couple of assignments before I went to bed,” she said. “I would come to school tired and not really properly focused on my classes.

“I think now, with this later timing, I feel more energetic. When I wake up, I have time to maybe do a couple of things at home before I can leave for school.

“I think overall, my energy, the way that I interact with my peers and teachers, it’s much more positive than it was.”

The pupil added that the later start had helped her improve her sleep schedule.

“I feel much less drowsy than I used to. Sometimes I would feel so tired and would have to take a nap after school,” she said.

“But now I feel like I have the energy to complete everything, and my sleep schedule isn’t all over the place.”

A Ten year old Digital books is more fragile and threatened compared to a 100 year old Physical book.

For those of us tending libraries of digitized and born-digital books, we know that they need constant maintenance—reprocessing, reformatting, re-invigorating or they will not be readable or read. Fortunately this is what libraries do (if they are not sued to stop it). Publishers try to introduce new ideas into the public sphere. Libraries acquire these and keep them alive for generations to come.

And, to serve users with print disabilities, we have to keep up with the ever-improving tools they use.

Mega-publishers are saying electronic books do not wear out, but this is not true at all. The Internet Archive processes and reprocesses the books it has digitized as new optical character recognition technologies come around, as new text understanding technologies open new analysis, as formats change from djvu to daisy to epub1 to epub2 to epub3 to pdf-a and on and on. This takes thousands of computer-months and programmer-years to do this work. This is what libraries have signed up for—our long-term custodial roles.

Also, the digital media they reside on changes, too—from Digital Linear Tape to PATA hard drives to SATA hard drives to SSDs. If we do not actively tend our digital books they become unreadable very quickly.

Then there is cataloging and metadata. If we do not keep up with the ever-changing expectations of digital learners, then our books will not be found. This is ongoing and expensive.

Our paper books have lasted hundreds of years on our shelves and are still readable. Without active maintenance, we will be lucky if our digital books last a decade.

Also, how we use books and periodicals, in the decades after they are published, change from how they were originally intended. We are seeing researchers use books and periodicals in machine learning investigations to find trends that were never easy in a one-by-one world, or in the silos of the publisher databases. Preparing these books for this type of analysis is time consuming and now threatened by publisher’s lawsuits.

If we want future access to our digital heritage we need to make some structural changes:  changes to institution and publisher behaviors as well as supportive funding, laws, and enforcement.

The first step is to recognize preservation and access to our digital heritage is a big job and one worth doing.  Then, find ways that institutions– educational, government, non-profit, and philanthropic– could make preservation a part of our daily responsibility.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) offers a free online course for school students above Class 8. Students who are interested in learning about remote sensing and geoinformation science, and have a basic understanding of science and mathematics, can apply for the course.

Things to know:

• The course is offered as part of the Antriksh Jigyasa (space curiosity) initiative of ISRO.
• The basics of remote sensing technology, as prescribed by the NCERT syllabus, will be taught to the students.
• Classes will be conducted by scientists and professors from various centres of ISRO.
• The course will be engaging with the use of simple language, images and animations.
• It will cover topics like stages in remote sensing, electromagnetic radiation (EMR), geostationary and sun-synchronous satellites, types of remote sensors, and multispectral scanners.
• The aim of the course is to make secondary and higher secondary students aware of remote sensing technology and its use for the study of planet Earth and its environment through informative lectures.

How to apply:

• Register on the official website.
• Upload necessary details including information about the school.
• Take approval from the school administration.
• Details about starting date and syllabus will be notified via email.

In case of queries, write to websupport@iirs.gov.in.

For Dubai Students, the UK curriculum schools remain the top choice for students, with 36 per cent of students opting for it. The Indian curriculum is the second most popular (26 per cent), followed by the American curriculum (15 per cent). The International Baccalaureate (7 per cent) and UK/IB hybrid curriculum (4 per cent) round up the top five curriculum choices.

The American curriculum remains popular for Emirati students enrolled in private schools, with the majority (60 per cent) attending a US curriculum school, followed by 24 per cent enrolled in UK curriculum schools.

This release of the latest data follows KHDA’s recent announcement, in which it revealed a student enrolment growth of 4.5 per cent from the end of the 2021-22 academic year in June, to the start of the current academic year in September. More than 326,000 students now attend Dubai’s private schools, representing a total of 187 nationalities.

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Director-General of KHDA, said: “These student enrolment figures represent healthy, sustainable growth, and show the trust that parents have in the ability of Dubai private schools to give their children an education grounded in wellbeing that can meet the demands of the future.

“While the range of curricula offered in Dubai speaks about the diversity of our community; all schools are committed to a quality-driven, future-focused approach that will enable students to thrive. We’re grateful to school leaders, teachers, students and parents for their contribution to world-class education in Dubai.”

The Danube Sports World, near Al Habtoor City, spans an area of more than 100,000 square feet, making it the largest of its kind in the region. It is set to open by November 26th 2022.

The temperature-controlled sports centre, housed under a dome, is built and run by the Danube Group, a multibillion-dirham conglomerate known in the building materials business.

Inside, visitors can book a range of facilities, including four cricket playing fields, four Fifa-certified indoor football pitches, nine padel tennis courts, six badminton courts, two squash courts, two beach tennis courts and multipurpose basketball and volleyball courts.

Other features of the massive space include a parking area that can accommodate 150 vehicles, lockers and changing room facilities, provisions for cameras to live-stream matches, a first-aid clinic and a cafe.

Players can order from the cafe through QR codes, and their food and drinks will be delivered to them in their courts.

The idea to build the sports facility came from Adel Sajan, the UAE conglomerate’s managing director, who said: “This is going to be the most popular go-to sporting and recreational centre in the UAE where consumers are now trying to mix sports and recreational facilities as part of their socialising process.

“Sports is gaining popularity in the UAE and GCC as a medium of socialising and healthy activity and this trend is going to grow as a global phenomenon.”

Bookings can be made through the Danube Sports World mobile application. Fees start from Dh85 per hour.

A reading literacy assessment that will be held three times per year has been officially mandated by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) for all students in the 6-15 age.

All schools in Dubai will participate in the digital Reading Literacy assessment for Grades 1 to 12, and the Arabic Benchmark Test, from Grades 1 to 9 with effect from the academic year 2023-24.

Peter Bonner, Assistant Principal Primary – Curriculum, Progress and Assessment, GEMS World Academy – Dubai says, “As per new KHDA guidelines, all students in the 6-15 age range are required to sit a standardised reading literacy assessment three times per year.

The guidelines state that tests must assess reading skills across a range of domains, with appropriate age-related emphases, including, but not limited to:

Bonner adds, “Schools have the flexibility to select a reading assessment platform and provider that is appropriate for them and their context, as long as these meet the above requirements.”

Assessments, he said, must be “computer-adaptive, and results should show each student’s reading age in comparison to grade/age expectations, and also a Standard Age Score (SAS) to facilitate comparison of data.

They should allow a detailed analysis of results, which is then used to support identification of individual student needs and how these drive interventions with all students.”

Headteachers explain this is part of the UAE’s commitment to maintaining high standards of education, and institutions are piloting these assessments in a few grades and sections based on random selection.

This is expected to help schools establish a baseline of students’ cognitive potential and achievements over time, and to facilitate necessary modifications to their learning.

Anime enthusiasts had the opportunity to pick up free copies of Manga illustrated novels at the Manga Arabia stand at Sharjah International Book Fair.

Manga Arabia, an initiative by Saudi Research & Media Group (SRMG), is the first company to formally translate popular releases into Arabic and provide enthusiasts from the region with a version they can read in their own language.

Manga is a Japanese style of illustration that has become popular all over the world.

Visitors to the stand were also able to have their names translated and written in Japanese on the backs of illustrated postcards. Abdul Malik Alaskar, a professional linguist and translator, greeted visiting enthusiasts and explained the vision of the company and initiative, showing a selection of free Manga comics in Arabic and translated people’s names on demand.

Joumana Rashed Al-Rashed, CEO of SRMG: “The launch of Manga Arabia constitutes a new dimension for Arabic content that has the ability to provide intellectual, cultural and creative inspiration for the Arab world.”

12-year-old Tazeen Swabri was identified as the home-schooled child to publish his book. ‘God of Dragons – The Beginiing at the Sharjah International Book Fair.

His book is the first in a series of seven fantasy novels. The young writer started with a 300-pager containing 49,000 words and is already writing his second volume.

Tazeen has won acclaim for his style, in which he used dragons and dinosaurs as characters in the book to show his perspective on life.

Although the name and the plot seem like a children’s genre, the picture is similar to a drama that makes the reader forget the age of the author who has combined different presentations of education, politics, family, equality. , emotions, friendship, war and peaceful coexistence.

Speaking to Gulf News, Tazeen said it took him eight months to complete the book.

“I have my own views on issues of war and peace and world affairs and I thought it would be good to show my people like dragons and dinosaurs,” he said.

The land of ‘Panzhuana’

Tazeen’s novel is set in the fictional world of ‘Panzhuana’ and revolves around dragon siblings Mark and Pearl and their mother Helen who enter into danger by entering the realms of a different kind of dragons.

Published by Al Rewaya, the book is available in all major bookstores and online platforms and Tazeen has already been invited to international exhibitions.

The book will be translated into Arabic and Chinese by March 2023, said Swabri’s father Abdul Khader Khasim, who runs an advertising company.

When asked if Tazeen’s writings were influenced by his parents, Swabri said: “We are not good at English. We had to seek the help of a professor to edit his book. But I helped him illustrate the book with his own. [Tazeen’s] cousin Shayan Shareef, who is 13, has drawn a map of the imaginary continent based on Tazeen’s description.

He said that both his children learned different languages ​​and studies independently. “We just helped them get started and gave them all the tools and guidance. Tazeen had been going to an English teacher for a few months when he was five.”

Tazeen said he is an avid reader with a passion for languages, geography, history, aviation and astronomy. She also likes to sing and play the piano.

“Our education has helped us [him and his brother] to benefit from the flexibility and freedom to design our own courses and plans,” he said.

Work at 15

His older brother Naji Swabri, 15, is completing his secondary school exams at the National Institute of Open Schooling, which is under the Indian government.

He is self-taught like his younger brother and has many talents such as 3D modeling, game development and animation. She is also interested in aviation, space and rocket science and enjoys dancing and acting.

Naji, who made a video trailer for the launch of Tazeen’s book and compared the event when the artist he was given earlier failed, said he feels lucky to have landed a job at a car manufacturing company in Dubai.

“I have been offered a job in their production department. I have been told to join after I complete my exams this month. We thank the UAE for allowing part-time jobs for those above 15 years of age,” he said.

‘Pilots home’

The homeschoolers have been volunteering with the Dubai Astronomy Group and have learned to fly a single-engine airplane by watching videos and using a home simulator.

A YouTube video posted by the brothers in January 2021 shows how ‘pilot’ Tazeen, assisted by his ‘pilot’ Naji, flew a Cessna Skyhawk G1000 simulator.

Swabri – who is the actor and director of the Indian film ‘De Nova – The Road Less Trodden’, which was released in 2009 – said that Naji wants to follow his footsteps in the film industry while Tazeen wants to become an airport manager. “He doesn’t like math that way.” Otherwise, he would have wanted to become a pilot,” he added.

Their mother Jubairiya A. Khader, an accountant, said her sons are learning “almost everything” through the Internet. “When schools started online education during COVID-19, we enrolled them in an Indian education school in Dubai because we thought they would enjoy going to school while staying at home. They did well in everything and were at the top of their classes for three months. But they were not happy with the education. school and homework. That’s why he stopped,” he said.