Deira Private School Garhood closed

[shawarma]

Deira Private School (DPS) - information on DubaiFAQs.com [edit 20 September 2009: for the new school in Al Twar, information moved for the old Garhoud Deira Private School that is closed, see new topic started about the new Al Twar school for up-to-date information]

DPS Not listed on KHDA website and only a telephone number on the MOE website (which appears to be incorrect).

Anyone have any further information?

[edit 02 September 2009: DPS has moved, and has re-opened under new management and owners according to information posted below. Previous information is probably no longer relevant. DPS Dubai details updated]

[shawarma]

Found this article about Deira Private School being auctioned off a couple of years ago. It sounds like it was a shambles with unqualified teachers (a chef was teaching ) and other criticisms. Further information not yet found.

Khaleej Times 04 June 2005:

Court set to auction Deira Private School
By Mohsen Rashid

DUBAI — The Deira Private School, whose trade licence is owned by Arif Belqeezi in Dubai, will be up for auction on June 11.

The Dubai Court has asked those interested in bidding to be present at the court’s office before moving to the location of the school where the office furniture (tables, desks, chairs, air-conditioners, software sets, fax machines etc) will be disposed of. The court asked anybody having an objection to the auction to present their reason for objection with substantiated documents justifying their arguments prior to the date of auction.

A copy of the court announcement was received by the Foreign Schools Department at the Ministry of Education. The department, however, is preparing a memorandum on the measures to be taken against the owner of the school licence for challenging the laws of the ministry and continued violation of the rules and regulations, despite the grace period given to him to clear the irregularities.

While the grace period already expired, the irregularities are still existing. The department referred to the sequence of the measures it had taken against the licencee ever since he started violating the rules. These began with a series of notices drawing his attention to the offences, right up to the final warning.

Other measures also included the forming of a committee by the Dubai Educational Zone and the Foreign Schools Department and the chalking out of a report containing all the violations and overstepping, despite his written undertaking addressed to the Ministry of Labour in which he had committed to rectify all the violations. The department had earlier considered suspending the activities of the school until the irregularities were rectified. Sources at the Department of Foreign Schools disclosed a serious and up-to-date report on the school. According to the report, the number of ‘teachers’ stood at nine, who actually belonged to different professions, as per their particulars.

The teachers — according to the designations stated in the residence visa — were general cook, student (unauthorised to work), and tourism agent. Female teachers, as noted in their particulars, were housewives (unauthorised to work).

The teachers have been working without any appointment letters, labour cards and employment contracts, the report said.

The principal of the school (female), in collaboration with an administrative supervisor who had resigned last September, had written the names of female teachers, workers and drivers — who, in fact, do not exist — and put them in the attendance sheet as well as on the payroll in order to illegally, and on their behalf, receive their salaries from the owner of the licence.

The report also unearthed the miserable and appalling condition of the school building since the beginning of the academic year, citing the example of a kitchen being used as the teachers’ staff room.

[nargish]

I think there is some mistake regarding Deira Private School. Could the administrator please check the facts before incorrect posts are allowed to appear? The school was never operational even though a license was obtained. There is no file on record in the labour ministry and the license is in the process of being renewed with KHDA. Could this damaging post by Shwarma (even thought it was posted in 2007) be please taken off?

[shawarma]

Hello nargish and welcome to the Dubai forums .

The school was never operational even though a license was obtained.

This conflicts with my understanding of what was reported in the Khaleej Times, and the Gulf News. There was a Gulf News report of 05 July 2004 referring to Deira Private School not paying teacher's salaries. Whether or not the teachers were being paid on time, it appears that the school was operational ...

• One teacher claimed she had not been paid 6 months salary amounting to AED 10,000 (indicating a monthly salary of about 1700 dhs). She said "The principal asked me to sign a form showing that I have received my salary. I don't believe her promises, and I don't expect to get my money from her. I have been working for the school without any proper labour contract. The principal threatens to use this against me whenever I ask for my salary."
• The principal said to the Gulf News "I don't know who is spreading these rumours about my school. None of the teachers have complained and they are all satisfied and happy."
• The deputy director of the Private Education Department at the Ministry of Education, Rashida Al Badri, reportedly said the school owed more than AED 100,000 to its staff. Other comments he made were: "We have been facing problems with this school for the past three years because the principal did not renew the licence. The principal claims that she is facing many problems with the sponsor of the school ... We have sent two inspection committees from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Youth. The reports show that the staff has not been paid, and many of them are working illegally. We have seven offences against this school ... Every day, we receive more than seven phone calls and faxes from teachers. We called the principal. She showed me the photocopies of the cheques issued to the staff, and which are due on July 15. Let us wait and see whether she settles the payment."

The Khaleej Times report the following year seems self-explanatory: Deira Private School was up for auction and the Dubai Education department had various issues with the school which were documented. I don't know what the outcome of the auction, or the Education committee was, I can't find any further reports. I had another look at the KHDA website, and still can't find a listing for Deira Private School. There are three other schools I know of that might be confused with DPS ...

Deira International School - an international school that is fully operational as far as I know.
Deira Homeland School - a name only, I don't think this one was ever operational - it was one that Global Recruiters claimed to be recruiting for.
Delhi Private School - an Indian curriculum school that is also fully operational last I heard.

[nargish]

Hi again. Sorry about the delay in replying......wrt the DPS reports, perhaps you are right.........they must have referred to one of the schools you mention with a similar name. Neither does the Labour department nor the economic department have a file in the name of the school, therefore, logic dictates that it was never operational!
Thanks for your input..

[anupam]

Dear Administrator,

Greetings from Deira Private School.

We would like to request you to kindly remove the contents with regard to Deira Private School from your blog. The information which you have posted is with regard to a school that might have been present in Garhoud and was presumably closed in 2004/2005.

These post are having negative impression on our new opened school which is also Deira Private School.

Deira Private School is located in a newly constructed building (completed in August 2007) at Al Twar 3. The school recently underwent a process of licensing through Knowledge & Human Development Authority and was granted approval to open in June 2009. The owners / License holders are different to what is mentioned in the blog and are individuals who have dedicated their lives in serving the people who live in the UAE.

We are a NEWLY OPENED British Curriculum Primary School.

We would also like to invite parents and others in doubt to come for our OPEN HOUSE on September 05, 2009, where you would have the opportunity to view the facility, meet with the staff member and also the Principal.

We are hoping that you would understand our situation and kindly remove the old information from your blog.

Thanking you in advance.

Regards,

Deira Private School

[shawarma]

Hello anupam, welcome to the forum and thanks for the update about DPS .

Some details for the new Deira Private School have been updated (not finished yet but at least the new information has been highlighted, and a notice about your open day added).

If you could reply to this topic with information from the school details template (you can copy and paste the code to help), it would be helpful for other visitors who read this topic. It will also help with updating the school information pages for Dubai. Thanks and good luck with the new Deira Private School .

[shawarma]

Deira Private School information updated to clarify it is a new school in Al Towar, and information about previous DPS in Garhood removed and archived on separate page. See also new DPS Dubai forum topic started using new school information. Add comments there.