UAE parents make alternative arrangements as school buses remain suspended

Parents in the UAE have begun making alternative arrangements after the Ministry of Education announced that school bus services will be postponed. While some working parents opted to take taxi services, others decided to continue online schooling for the time being.

“I decided to keep my son at home for online learning,” said Dubai parent Marina Paul. “We live along the Al Qudra corridor and school transport was a main deciding factor when picking a school for my eight-year-old son. We are both working parents and have no option to drop or pick him up. In the morning, our school sent out a survey on whether we want to resume schooling in person or online. I first picked in-person learning but when I heard the news about school buses, I changed it to online schooling. Hopefully school buses will resume in the next week or so.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Eduation (MoE) has issued a clarification saying that individual schools will be offering flexibility on a case-by-case basis to minimise disruption as students return to classrooms. The decision to postpone bus services will be subject to a weekly review.

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On Wednesday, the MoE announced that schools, nurseries and universities will be permitted to begin in-person classes on Monday, April 20. This will mark the end of over a month of online lessons for students across the country.

Sharjah parent Waqar said that while his elder children will use public transport to get to and from their schools, his youngest daughter — who is five years old — will continue to study online. “My youngest one goes to a different school than her siblings and obviously, she is not old enough to take public transport on her own,” he said. “It is not feasible for me to drop her so she will stay home and do online schooling until the bus services resume.”

Taxi service

Abu Dhabi parent Mariam is contemplating hiring a taxi service to get her six-year-old daughter to school. The Indian expat, who started a new job earlier this year, said that she had applied for bus services from term three.

“When we moved online, I cancelled the application,” she said. “On Wednesday, after MoE announced about in-person learning, I once again emailed the bus company. However, I learnt this morning that school bus services will be delayed. So now I am considering asking my nanny to pick her up using a taxi. This would cost me around Dh30 per day.”

She added that this option was looking more feasible for her due to a number of reasons. “It is not practical for me to leave my office in the middle of the day,” she said. “Also, with the rising fuel prices and parking costs, it is actually cheaper for me to get a taxi than pick her up in a car. I don't want to continue online learning either because the extended screen time is impacting my daughter.”

Meanwhile, some parents are still confused about school bus refunds. Parent Aisha said that she paid her child’s yearly bus fees in September and is still awaiting news on refunds. “When I emailed the service provider, they said that they are awaiting information from ADEK regarding fee refunds,” she said.

“If school reopens and there are no bus services, I may have to spend additional money to get my child to school. We are still awaiting for more information to make alternative arrangements.”