NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Families defy Dubai villa evictions
DUBAI - OCT 26: As the deadline to end villa sharing in Dubai passed this weekend, many families defiantly remained in their homes as they awaited final eviction notices.
Others, whose water and electricity were cut off, chose to separate temporarily as husbands, unable to find alternative affordable accommodation, sent their wives and children back to their home countries.
Dubai Municipality enacted the “one villa, one family” law earlier this year, claiming that sharing villas among families was unsafe and presented environmental and health risks. The deadline for ending the practice was Friday.
Only one family can now live in a villa, although immediate family members may share. Unrelated families still sharing villas in districts of Dubai such as Jumeirah, Um Suqeim, Al Barsha and The Springs face eviction.
Omar Abdul Rahman, the head of buildings inspection for the municipality, said: “These homes are cheap because they are dangerous and a health hazard for families living in them.
“They are partitioned using plywood and other dangerous materials like asbestos. We are more concerned about the safety of the people.
“We have been giving notices to the landlords but no one seems to take any notice. We were forced to take action.”
A Filipino electrical maintenance worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was forced to send his wife and youngest son back to the Philippines four weeks ago after power was cut off at the villa he still shares with other low-income families in Jumeirah.
The shanty-like villa, where two families share each room, is one of many in Jumeirah 1, behind Jumeirah Beach Road and only minutes away from upscale villas lining the road.
“My wife and my seven-year-old son went back home,” said the Filipino, 46, who has lived in Dubai for 14 years. “I took my son out of school and sent them back because these are not normal living conditions which they can endure and we could not afford to move. At first there was an erratic cut of electricity for a few hours a day but then a week ago it was completely cut.
“Our landlord has given us a generator, but only for five hours a night.”
He is still living in the villa with his 23-year-old son but said they would probably move out by the end of the month. “My next move is to a bed-spacing accommodation and then I will start working on finding a job in another Gulf country,” he said. “There is no electricity and we can’t cook or sleep properly. We sleep on and off every night.”
He said many people were now sleeping outdoors because the heat was unbearable in the villa.
“There are many families in here but I don’t know how many. It is divided. Two families live in one room with a partition between them.”
Some families moved out because the Government deadline had passed, he said. “But the majority of people are still here. Most can’t afford to move out.”
He said a Filipino television anchorman came to film the villa recently to show people the conditions in which he and his neighbours were sleeping.
He said the Government should have given low-income people alternatives before implementing the policy. “There should be an alternative given, like building low-cost accommodation for low-paid expats,” he said.
“But we have to find a way to survive and the living prices are simply unaffordable.”
The campaign to evict families sharing villas began earlier this year, when those sharing in al Rashidiya district were ordered to move out. Last month the municipality extended the campaign to other districts.
P Sadakaran, a machinist from India who lives in the same district as the Filipino, said he would have to send his family home when he was forced out of his villa because rents elsewhere were too high.
He and his wife, a teacher, have a joint monthly income of Dh6,000 (US$1,635). They have a daughter, aged two and a half, and a three-month-old son.
“We currently live in a small room in a villa. We pay Dh1,800 a month plus utilities, but having one family per villa is a huge problem because most of the people here cannot even dream about affording it,” he said.
“If we move out to a flat, it will cost between Dh3,000 and Dh4,000. Since we both work we have a babysitter whom we pay Dh1,000. What will we be left with? We won’t have enough to eat.”
Electricity and water are still supplied in the villa where his family and five other families live, but Mr Sadakaran said people in the neighbourhood were wondering what to do.
“Everyone is talking about it, we all know what’s coming. But most people are staying and we are staying, too, until the moment comes and we get evicted.”
Mr Sadakaran, 37, who moved to Dubai in 1993, said the moment the electricity was cut would be the time for him and his family to go. “We hope the electricity won’t get cut for as long as possible, but once it’s cut then my wife and I have planned an emergency call to buy her and the kids a flight back and I will move into a camp,” he said.
Although he felt stressed and saddened to separate from his family, he accepted that this was his fate and he would have to visit his wife and children in India once a year. “It’s the Government which makes the rules. You can’t fight it and you just accept it,” he said.
Inspections of villas are being carried out and authorities warn that any landlord found flouting the law could be fined as much as Dh50,000.
Last year, municipality officers targeted bachelors living in villas.
THE NATIONAL
Teachers face tests to address failings
ABU DHABI - OCT 26: Ten thousand teachers undergoing retraining will be required to prove their proficiency in 10 key areas, ranging from creating dynamic classroom environments to understanding how to conduct continuous assessments of their charges, The National has learnt.
The Ministry of Education is working to implement the first set of nationwide professional standards for public school teachers and regulate teaching practices. The standards will apply to every teacher in UAE public schools, including those working in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The process has begun with the retraining of 10,000 teachers in the northern Emirates to address deficiencies in curriculum, lesson planning and student assessment.
Reform of the failing public school system has been of paramount concern for most of this decade, but various plans to reinvent education since 2000 have not had measurable results.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, recently called for an overhaul of the state school system on “every level”. The federal budget for education – Dh9.7 billion (US$2.6bn) for next year – represents about 23 per cent of Government spending.
Studies commissioned by the Education Ministry in 2001 and 2005 showed that only 44 per cent of UAE teachers had university degrees in education. In Singapore, 80 per cent of teachers have such degrees; in Japan the figure is 97 per cent.
Some teachers in UAE public schools have no university degrees at all. And, according to the 2001 and 2005 studies, most new teachers entering the system had, on average, just two weeks of training.
A study last year by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company concluded that high-quality teachers are the most important indicator of a school system’s excellence.
Looking at 25 different examples – including what the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development tests indicate are the 10 highest-performing school systems – the study determined that the three most important factors in school quality were getting the right people to become teachers, developing them into effective instructors and ensuring that the system can deliver the best possible instruction for every child.
“The more on-task teachers are, the more chance there will be for students to improve their performance,” said Elizabeth Ross, an adviser in the professional development department at the Ministry of Education. “The higher-quality teacher performance, the higher achievement of students in the classroom – there is a direct correlation between the two.”
The Ministry of Education has identified teaching practice as one of its top priorities for improvement, alongside its plans to replace the outmoded school curriculum with a new, student-centred learning model and to restore and rebuild ageing school facilities.
The new standards will “give us a common language and a shared vision for the teaching profession”, Ms Ross said.
The changes are a part of a larger ministry plan announced in August to improve teacher qualifications. New teachers entering the system will eventually be required to be licensed and certified.
An estimated 2,500 public school teachers completed an orientation session on the new standards last week.
In the first year, teachers will cover three standards: understanding how pupils learn, creating classroom environments that support student learning and using instructional practices that actively engage pupils.
The initiative is led by Nabeela Ali al Mirza, director of the professional development department at the ministry.
Perhaps the most important of the new standards involves understanding how children learn.
“When we actively engage the student, we develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills,” Ms Ross said.
Teachers will be required to demonstrate proficiency before they are allowed to move on to the next module.
According to a ministry official, teachers will have to conduct sample lessons to demonstrate what they have learnt.
In the second year, teachers will be trained on the ministry’s new “standards-based” curriculum, which will radically change teaching practice. The current curriculum relies heavily on rote memorisation.
The other standards demand that teachers be proficient on up-to-date learning technology, that they are able to assess student work continually, that they can effectively communicate with pupils, colleagues and parents; that they are effective leaders; that they understand the new code of conduct; and that they continually engage in professional development.
THE NATIONAL
Firms face penalties over ID registration
DUBAI - OCT 26: Companies whose foreign employees do not register for identity cards could face penalties similar to those imposed on firms that employ illegal immigrants, a senior official with the Emirates Identity Authority (EIDA) has warned.
Professional expatriates with university degrees who do not obtain identity cards by Dec 31 will be unable to access government services. After the end of 2010, companies employing a foreign resident who does not have a card will be treated as if they were hiring illegal immigrants, said Thamer Rashed al Qasemi, EIDA’s planning director.
Firms employing illegal workers could be fined Dh50,000 (US$13,613) per person for a first offence. Company chiefs could be jailed if convicted of further violations.
Individual Emirati citizens could be fined Dh1,000 if they have not registered for the biometric identity cards by the Dec 31 deadline. Mr Qasemi said firms employing unregistered Emiratis after that deadline “will be punished according to the law”.
The Ministry of Labour announced this month that more than 190 companies had been referred to public prosecution for hiring illegal workers so far this year.
Darwish Ahmad al Zarouni, the general manager of EIDA, said he wanted people to see the identity card scheme as being for their benefit and security.
“Our main aim is to secure our nation and our people, and to make life simpler for them,” he said.
Meanwhile, hospital bosses laid to rest concerns that expatriates without ID cards would not be treated at Government hospitals. EIDA had stated that every Emirati citizen must have a card by Jan 1 or they would not have access to any Government services, including health care.
Doctors have said, however, that they would not turn away emergency cases.
Jack Borders, the chief medical officer at Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, said his staff would not refuse to treat a patient in a medical emergency.
“It would be extraordinary for us to turn patients away,” he said.
Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah also confirmed that it would treat emergency patients regardless of whether they had ID cards.
The chief executive and chief medical officer, Dr Alan Sandford, said the hospital would not turn away a patient who required immediate medical attention. “We will assess the impact of the policy change within our own organisation,” he said. “However, if someone presents and requires urgent medical care, we would never turn them away.
The biometric identity cards cost Dh100 for Emirati adults, and Dh50 for children under the age of 15. For expatriates, the cards cost Dh100 for every year left on their residency visas, to a maximum of Dh300.