Dubai beats COVID-19: How KHDA has kept schools going through the pandemic

Starting today, Gulf News will be publishing a special series of exclusive interviews with top-most officials and frontline workers from key government departments and entities in Dubai to highlight their relentless efforts in meeting challenges and ensuring the utmost safety of residents amid the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic.

KHDA top boss speaks

Dubai: Reopening schools was a harder decision than closing them amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but cooperation with all stakeholders ensured a safe return to classrooms, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), has said.

As Dubai manages to bring life in the city to a new rhythm, Dr Abdulla Al Karam told Gulf News in an exclusive interview that KHDA worked with many authorities and the school community to minimise the pandemic’s disruption to education, despite sometimes having “no visibility” in a fast-evolving crisis.

Sudden shift

He said the enormity of the situation facing learners and educators “didn’t really register” until March 2020, when schools in the UAE were suddenly told to move their spring breaks forward by two weeks to prepare for what at the time was expected to be a brief shift to full distance learning. Back then, when COVID-19 cases were still relatively low, there was hope that “this might be all over” soon, Al Karam said. “The dialogue was: ‘Can we really shift the spring break; what will happen to people’s commitments, travel plans and air tickets?’” he recalled .

Looking at reopening

However, what was initially meant to be two weeks of distance learning was eventually extended until the end of the academic year (July). Although the decision “was hard, we felt better, as we were moving towards not closing, but towards opening” schools again for the coming academic year. Throughout the closure and summer break, KHDA, in coordination with other government authorities, worked on the “reopening protocols” in September for schools.

Let’s put the protocol in place, let’s work towards telling people, ‘Yes, there will be schools in September, one way or the other’. And we need to tell people right now.

Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)

“And this is where actually it was like: Hang on, but to reopen we need this and we need that. Well, we didn’t ask all these questions when we were closing schools … And this is where we realised how complicated it was to reopen. To close, it was very simple,” Al Karam said.

Taking a stand

While some people hoped the virus would die out over the summer, others believed it would roll into the next academic year, he added. Regardless, Al Karam said, the KHDA’s stand was clear. “Let’s put the protocol in place, let’s work towards telling people, ‘Yes, there will be schools in September, one way or the other’. And we need to tell people right now.”

New milestone

The protocol, which covers the roles of authorities, schools, students and parents in safely sending children back to the classrooms in person, are “one of the biggest milestones” that the KHDA has achieved in working with many government entities at the local and federal level, Al Karam added.

He added that the KHDA, “working with and appreciating” many government agencies — from health to emergency, from state to federal — made it clear that schools would reopen in September and announced the protocol. “We said we will work through the summer to have everything in place, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Readiness plans

KHDA checked schools’ “readiness plans” for reopening safely. Despite a worldwide increase in cases in late August, Dubai schools welcomed back students in September, although a majority of pupils chose to continue distance learning. “I think the most important factor was the government saying ‘Going to school is an option for those who feel comfortable’,” Al Karam said.

Growing confidence

In September, only around 20 per cent of students had opted for in-person learning, on all or some school days. The KHDA had set up a dashboard and followed the ratio almost on a daily basis. He said every increase, even if just 0.1 per cent, meant a higher “confidence factor and a comfort factor”. By December, at the end of Term 1, the ratio had risen to almost 65 per cent. “It showed the systems were working,” he said.

Dips and spikes

In January, “a spike in number of cases” brought the ratio down to 30 per cent, “which was fine, as it reflected the situation in the community and how they felt about it”, Al Karam added. The ratio “naturally” followed the dips and spikes in cases but, more importantly, it showed the protocol was working well, “almost on auto-pilot at times”, be it arranging distance, blended or in-person classes or handling cases in school, Al Karam added.

‘The story isn’t finished’

Now in the last term of the academic year, he said “the story is not finished yet”. The protocol will continue to guide not only the “good times” but “more so for when we don’t have visibility…”

Al Karam said: “I have never seen so much collaboration take place in any other year … It really feels like we are in this together.”

He added that another lesson learnt is that “it’s not natural for children not to be in school, not being physically together with their friends and not sharing the love and enjoying the experience”.

‘We’re stronger now’

Al Karam said: “We’ve learned so much in the past one year. And honestly speaking, some of what we learned, maybe we’ll have to unlearn soon, and pick up something new.”

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