Hope you are keeping safe and enjoying your summer.  We are currently approaching the beginning of a new academic year in most of the MENA countries. Some countries will open at full capacity (blended learning), while others are offering an online only option for students. Kindly see below the latest news regarding education in the MENA region.

Bahrain: The school year will resume on 6 September for teachers and 16 September for students in governmental schools.

Egypt: The 2020-2021 academic year will begin on 17 October 2020 and end on 24 June 2021.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: The Ministry of Education will continue to approve requests to defer scholarship awards for one year.

Kuwait:  The Ministry of Higher Education introduced online platforms to study the first term online.

UAE: Parents in Dubai will have the choice to send their children back to school when the new school year starts again, or continue with the distance learning programme that has been in place over the last few months.

Visas and Immigration:

UK visa services have now resumed across all visa application centres in the Gulf. Appointments are currently limited, the Priority Visa service is only available in UAE and Qatar, and the Super Priority Visa Services is not yet available in any location. Services and appointment availability are being kept under regular review. Our current service standard for all visit and Tier 4 student visas is 15 working days. UKVI is now (temporarily) issuing T4 students with a 90 day vignette to travel and collect their BRP in the UK, instead of the usual 30 day vignette. If due to travel restrictions your 30 day vignette expired before you were able to use it, UKVI will replace this with a new 90 day vignette free of charge.

More information can be found here: https://www.vfsglobal.co.uk/en

Advice for UK visa applicants: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-advice-for-uk-visa-applicants-and-temporary-uk-residents

Advice for Tier 4 students/Short term students: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-tier-4-sponsors-migrants-and-short-term-students

Advice on entering the UK and self-isolation requirements: https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control

Travel advice

For travel advice, please visit https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice. We encourage institutions who are considering travelling to sign up for alerts. We are also keeping up to date with local government websites for any updates and restrictions, so kindly feel free to contact us if you need any information and we will refer you to the relevant websites.

IELTS

We have now resumed IELTS testing across the UAE. The health and safety of test takers and test staff continues to be our number one priority and we have taken the time to put in place all precautionary measures to ensure our customers can test confidently at our venues.  

Register for IELTS testing with the British Council and take advantage of the free preparation resources from experts to help you achieve your dreams:

•  Road to IELTS - Our free 30-hour online preparation course with 100 interactive activities and two practice tests for each of the four skills – Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking

• IELTS Counselling – A free service offering advice from an IELTS expert on how to achieve the desired IELTS score and prepare for the IELTS test. This is aimed at helping test takers achieve their desired scores through personalized virtual sessions and is currently available in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. For more information visit: https://www.britishcouncil.ae/en/exam/ielts/prepare/counselling-service  

 Additional support :

•  Online practice tests  

•  Free IELTS practice material

•  Mobile apps for IELTS preparation on the go

•  Videos and tips  

Please visit https://www.britishcouncil.ae/en/exam/ielts/prepare for further information

To book an IELTS test with the British Council, please visit: https://www.britishcouncil.ae/en/exam/ielts/book-test

For information on test availability please visit: https://www.britishcouncil.ae/en

For more MENA updates, webinars, market insights and other International Education Services, please go to your alerts settings and select updates from MENA. If you have any feedback or require any additional information, please contact me at dina.kanan@ae.britishcouncil.org

Thank you and stay safe

Dina Kanan

UAE Manager, International Education Services

BAHRAIN:

The school year will resume on 6 September for teachers and 16 September for students in governmental schools. Students in private schools are also returning between 3-16 September. Parents and students (for both private and public schools) were given the choice between full online learning or blended learning (online and at the school). Schools will be prepared with the necessary precautions and class sizes will be smaller to allow social distancing.

More information can be found here: https://gulfnews.com/world/gulf/bahrain/bahrain-to-start-school-year-on-september-6-1.73261452

Contact

For more information about Bahrain, please contact Kawthar AlArab, Projects Manager, Bahrain  Kawthar.AlArab@britishcouncil.org.bh

EGYPT:

Ministers of Education and Higher Education are preparing to present a comprehensive reopening plan to the PM on 20 August, this will then be shared with the public the first week of September. The Cabinet's statement confirms a blended form of learning will be implemented, with smaller groups attending on limited days and virtual learning taking place for the remainder of the week. The Health Minister commented on preparations for schools and universities reopening saying that several proposals are available to choose from and will be discussed with Education and Higher Education Ministers before being presented to the Covid-19 committee headed by the PM. 

The PM approved the relaxation of the below precautionary measures:

• Conferences will be allowed to resume from 26 July, with  a maximum of 50 attendees in halls that have a capacity of 100
• Large exhibitions can resume in October

A Higher Education Ministry spokesperson said a recent study showed two drugs that are already available in the market may be very efficient in treating Covid-19, adding that the next clinical phase will involve human trials.

Contact

For more information about Egypt, please contact Sahar Khamis, Head of Education Programmes, Egypt Sahar.khamis@britishcouncil.org.eg

KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

In an implementation of the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and His Highness the Crown Prince, the Secretary of Education issued a decision to continue approval for those on scholarships to study remotely at all academic levels until the end of 2020. Here’s the translation of the official announcement:

• The Ministry will continue to approve/agree for scholars to study online until the end of 2020.
• MOE will continue the stipend for those who completed and graduate during the spring and summer of 2020 and are unable to return to the kingdom, subject to returning the kingdom within a month of this decision/announcement.
• MOE will continue the stipend for scholars only (no dependents) for those in the kingdom and continuing their study online due to the pandemic (submit a separate request for cases with dependents requesting salaries/stipend)
• MOE will continue to approve requests to defer scholarship awards for one year due to the pandemic.

Source: Ministry of Education News

Contact Information

For more information and insights about the situation in KSA, please contact Rizwan Safdar, Project Manager, KSA Rizwan.Safdar@sa.britishcouncil.org

KUWAIT:

The Cabinet on Thursday decided to ease restrictions to allow the country to move into the fourth phase of returning to normal life. It permitted salons and gyms to reopen and restaurants to offer more services. The six hour night curfew will continue for at least another week, when the Council of Ministers is expected to review recommendations to scrap the curfew. The Cabinet also brought forward several activities included in the fifth phase and implemented them in the fourth. These new directives will become effective from 18 August.

The Ministry of Education has written to the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior to demand the Ministry allow the teachers of foreign private schools (British, US, French and bilingual schools) with expired residency visas to return back to Kuwait on tourist or business visas. After returning back to Kuwait these visas could be transferred to a residency visa without needing to leave the country.

All schools started there online learning for the second term last week. This will take place over 8 weeks to finish the curriculum for the 2019-2020 academic year. All students will move up to the higher grade after this period to start the 2020-2021 academic year on the second week of September 2020. MOE have introduced online platforms to study at least the first term online.

Contact Information

For more information and insights about the situation in Kuwait, please contact Rasha Osman, Project Manager, Higher Education Rasha.Osman@britishcouncil.org

UAE:

The new school year starts on 30 August 2020 and schools are preparing to open with face-to-face teaching, while adhering to the requirements that schools must follow set out by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). Complete article can be found here: http://connector.ae/updates/6321/requirements-announced-that-schools-should-put-in-place-when-they-reopen

Other insights (Media)

Distance Learning An Option For School Children Next Term: https://dubaiweek.ae/news/55819/distance-learning-an-option-for-school-children-next-term/

Revised A-level grades mean UAE pupils can attend their first-choice university:  https://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/revised-a-level-grades-mean-uae-pupils-can-attend-their-first-choice-university-1.1065379

Covid tests, ‘mostly online’ classes: Dubai varsities spell out reopening plans: https://www.edarabia.com/covid-tests-mostly-online-classes-dubai-varsities-spell-out-reopening-plans/

Dubai issues guidelines for reopening of universities: https://gulfnews.com/uae/education/dubai-issues-guidelines-for-reopening-of-universities-1.73104126

School heads in UAE confident ‘secure bubbles’ on campus will help fight virus spread: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/coronavirus-pandemic/school-heads-in-uae-confident-secure-bubbles-on-campus-will-help-fight-virus-spread

More than eight in ten Abu Dhabi private schools earn top rating in distance learning assessment: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/more-than-eight-in-ten-abu-dhabi-private-schools-earn-top-rating-in-distance-learning-assessments-1.1056370

Pupils at Abu Dhabi's private schools will have a staggered return to class, regulators announce: https://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/pupils-at-abu-dhabi-s-private-schools-will-have-a-staggered-return-to-class-regulators-announce-1.1064237

Contact Information

For more information, please contact Dina Kanan, UAE Manger, International Education Services dina.kanan@ae.britishcouncil.org