GEMS Winchester School Oud Metha closes Class 10

GEMS Winchester School in Oud Metha has announced that it will not be offering class 10 from next academic session.

The school, which is located in Oud Metha, did offer affected pupils seats in two other GEMS schools — Winchester School in Sharjah and The Westminster School in Al Ghusais. But parents declined, saying that one school is too far and the other almost shut down in 2012.

The school announced via a circular sent to parents on Thursday that it will not be offering grade 10 classes after they were refused permission to do so by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA).

Mohammad Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Permits Commission at the KHDA, said for a school to be granted permission to expand, it must be rated at least ‘Good’ by the Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB), but GEMS Winchester School was rated ‘Acceptable’ in DSIB’s 2013-14 report.

Parents are of opinion that they should have been informed earlier so that they could look for other schools.

“We live in Al Khail. Our children’s school is in Oud Metha. So why would they choose schools that are in or next to Sharjah? They should have informed us before admissions closed or provided us with better options.”

GEMS Winchester School spokesperson said the school received KHDA’s final decision last week and were surprised by the decision. The spokesperson also said the re-enrolment fees will be transferred to the GEMS schools which the students will be transferred to or the amount can be refunded.

GEMS Schools have a flair to be in news for all the wrong reasons. Previously, there was a report of GEMS Westminster school raising tuition fees to the sky.

via GulfNews.com.