Tag Archives: opinion
Public school admissions in Abu Dhabi begin on February 23
Public school admissions in Abu Dhabi begin on February 23 Olivia Olarte-Ulherr / 18 February 2014 Expatriate students can register starting March 16 while admission age for Kindergarten students raised. Registration for the 2014-2015 academic year for the new Emirati students in public schools across the emirate will begin on February 23 and will continue till March 20. Expatriate students will have a week to register from March 16 to 20. Mohammad Salem Al Dhaheri, executive director of school operations at the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), has urged parents to enrol their children as early as possible in order not to miss the deadline. “Missing the deadline will cause a lot of problems for the parents,” he said, noting that awarding of spaces will be based on first-come-first-serve basis,” he said. Online registration This year, registration has been made easier with the new online system adopted by the Adec. “We have introduced new features like using the Emirates ID to capture all information automatically. This will minimise the time spent by the school and the number of documents required to register a student,” said Walid Nsouli, senior information and communications technology (ICT) advisor at the council. With the Emirates ID card reader, registration of new students takes about three to five minutes compared to the old registration process of typing all information and scanning documents, which takes between 28 and 32 minutes. “For KG to Grade 5, we don’t need any documents to be scanned, but for the higher grades (Grades 6-12) we need their last grade report card,” Nsouli explained. Admission age In keeping with the new Ministry of Education guidelines, Adec clarified that the admission age for Kindergarten 1 (KG1) at public schools is four years old as of December 31 of the admission year. It will be five for KG2 and six up to eight years for Grade 1. The entry level for kindergarten previously was 3.6 years for KG1 and 5.6 years for Grade 1 by October 1 of the admission year. “They changed the new admission age to four years for KG1; the child should be four years old by December 31,” said Thuraya Khalifa Al Salmi, student administration manager from Adec. This is the new guideline in the UAE and takes effect during the 2014 to 2015 academic year,” she added. Waiting list Another system introduced to parents this year is the waiting list e-registration service. Parents who can’t find a place for their child can log on to Adec website www.adec.ac.ae and choose a school according to their area of residence. “This will minimise the parents coming to our regional offices and they will be informed which school they can go,” Nsouli explained, noting that the new system was introduced to avoid frustration among parents. He said this will also allow Adec to manage the distribution of students especially in new settlement areas. There are currently 126,000 students enrolled in 262 public schools across the emirate. Students who are eligible to register at Adec schools include Emirati children, GCC nationals, holders of presidential decrees, diplomatic missions’ children, children of expatriates (according to the applicable laws) and orphans sponsored by UAE nationals. olivia@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
Discovery Gardens gridlock to be resolved soon: RTA
Discovery Gardens gridlock to be resolved soon: RTA Staff Reporter / 17 February 2014 Authority is about to undertake further road works in the area with a view to providing two additional entries and two exits. As motorists’ frustration of being stuck in hours’ long traffic jams in Discovery Garden community at Jebel Ali reaches its peak, the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) says it has held an urgent meeting with the developer Nakheel and will study temporary solutions “within a matter of days”. Residents of Discovery Gardens often get stuck in traffic for hours. — KT photo by Grace Guino In a statement to Khaleej Times on Sunday, the RTA said that it is “about to undertake further road works in the area with a view to providing two additional entries and two exits for Discovery Gardens and Ibn Battuta Mall at Interchange 5.5 on Shaikh Zayed Road and Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road.” “Works on these solutions are expected to be completed by the end of this year. These works are undertaken as part of the next five year plan that completes parallel roads in that area.” Hussain Al Banna, Director of Traffic, RTA Traffic and Roads Agency, said: “The RTA had an urgent meeting with Nakheel to work out solutions and alternatives, including streamlining functionality of light signals in the area concerned in a bid to ensure a smooth traffic flow.” On Thursday last week, heavy rain had caused a huge gridlock that lasted for hours. A resident of Discovery Gardens said the traffic jams are routine and very frustrating. “On a normal working day, it takes over 45 minutes to reach the only exit that both the communities have access to,” said the resident. “There are two schools in the area and despite the fact that traffic policemen are present everyday, we are stuck in a jam for hours.” Al Banna said the RTA is undertaking a study. “Within a matter of days, the RTA will embark on studying the provision of temporary entries and exits for the Discovery Gardens through the Shaikh Zayed Road and the Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Road out of its keenness to overcome any difficulties impacting the traffic flow.” news@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
New curbs on carrying rupees to India
New curbs on carrying rupees to India Issac John / 17 February 2014 Under the amended Customs Baggage Declaration Regulations Indian citizens will no longer be required to fill immigration forms when they return from abroad. Passengers entering India through its international airports will have to specifically declare Indian currency at the customs if the value exceeds Rs10,000. Effective from March 1, under the new customs rules, passengers arriving at the country’s 19 international airports, will also have to specifically declare, for the first time, prohibited goods and dutiable items, including gold jewellery and gold bullion exceeding the free allowance. However, under the amended Customs Baggage Declaration Regulations Indian citizens will no longer be required to fill immigration forms when they return from abroad. They have to fill up the immigration form only when they go out of the country. In a new detailed form, passengers will have to give details of countries visited in the past six days and mention the passport number on the new customs declaration form. A notification issued on February 10 by the finance ministry said from March 1, passengers must fill out a new detailed customs form that also asks them to declare number of baggage, including hand baggage. The new ‘Indian Customs Declaration Form’ will be different from the detachable perforated strip, which is a part of the current immigration card. For the first time the Declaration Form carries additional fields for declaration of dutiable and prohibited goods, which will help authorities in checking customs duty frauds and keep a record of gold jewellery and bullion being brought into the country. Old fields like declaration of satellite phone, foreign currency exceeding $5,000 or equivalent, aggregate value of foreign exchange including currency exceeding $10,000 or equivalent, meat, meat products, dairy products, fish or poultry products and seeds, plants, fruits, flowers and other planting material have been retained in the new format. Male passengers are now allowed to carry gold worth up to Rs50,000 and female passengers twice as much. Non-resident Indians can take foreign exchange, but they have to declare amounts exceeding $5,000 or equivalent or when the total value of foreign exchange (currencies, travellers cheques) exceeds $10,000. India’s has 19 international airports in Srinagar, Amritsar, Jaipur, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Nagpur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Goa, Bangalore, Chennai, Calicut, Coimbatore,Tiruchirapalli, Cochin, Trivandrum and Port Blair. In August 2013, the Reserve Bank of India slapped new foreign exchange controls restricting the amount of dollars Indian companies and individuals can spend overseas, and banned people from buying property in foreign countries and imposed fresh curbs on gold imports as part of a strategy to shore up the rupee. Under amended rules, an individual can spend $75,000 from the earlier $200,000 in any given year. Companies can now invest only up to 100 per cent of their networth in overseas locations, a fourth of the previous level of 400 per cent. issacjon@khaleejtimes.com For more news from Khaleej Times, follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/khaleejtimes , and on Twitter at @khaleejtimes Continue reading
