Several schools of Abu Dhabi have been reminded that requiring the vaccination of students below the age of 16 is “strictly prohibited” since they ask this as a mandate for children to join school physically.

Coming from the emirate’s Department of Education and Knowledge (Adek), the officials have issued a policy for the implementation of the Blue Schools Initiative. The recently approved initiative gives permission to all the schools in the Capital region to ease down on the safety measures related to Covid and resume normal daily operations based on student vaccination rates.

The new Adek policy also provides a comprehensive framework for the initiative that includes guidelines on the formula, which is approved and majorly used to calculate the vaccinate rate. The formula also engages to determine that how privileges be used to he school authorities. This framework also caters to students who are not vaccine yet and adheres to all anti-discrimination policies.

Amer Al Hammadi, who is the undersecretary at Adek mentioned that the policy mandates schools to establish clear anti-discrimination and anti-stigmatisation guidelines in line with the values of the UAE. Schools are strictly prohibited from requiring the mandatory vaccination of students below the age of 16.’

He further adds by saying that their policy is designed to enable an efficient and effective implementation of the Blue Schools Initiative and provides full transparency to education community as they strive to see schools return to normalcy at the earliest opportunity.

Currently, all the staff members and students who are aged 16 and above at private and charter schools of Abu Dhabi have received the Covid vaccination. Vaccination for the ones below 16 years old still remains voluntary according as per the government protocols.

Under the initiative, as vaccination rates increase within a school community, it will advance through the four color coded tiers: Orange, yellow, green and blue and all the privileges have been specified especially per tier.

The schools are required to be relaxed on certain key things so that more mobility and interactivity among students can take place. rIt ranges from mask-wearing protocols, increases in classroom and bus capacity and the reintroduction of field trips, on-campus events and extra-curricular activities, including team and contact sports. It also covers inclusion of students in inter and intra-school competitions.