Abu Dhabi Indian schools to have more than 20,000 seats by 2013

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) plans to provide more than 20,000 seats in Indian schools, while introducing another three new Indian schools by the 2012-13 academic year, seeing tremendous rise in demand for admissions.

Parents have been left in the lurch due to limited seats in Indian curriculum schools with over 2,500 applying for just 100-odd seats at the Abu Dhabi Indian School.

The waiting list for seats in Indian curriculum schools in the capital has reached a huge total of 15,000 pupils, the Gulf News reported.

Indian curriculum schools are facing a particularly acute problem too as there are not much seats available at British, American and International Baccalaureate (IB) private schools.

"A minimum of 15,000 pupils in Abu Dhabi alone, are waiting to enrol in Indian schools. Our school alone receives over 15 walk-in parents each day, all eager to find classroom space for their children. We have over 3,000 pupils waiting to get into our school since the beginning of the school year, and I can't do anything about it," said Ram Menon, manager for Private International English School (Pies).

Space has been located and approved by ADEC to make room for 1,100 more pupils across a 12,000 square metre plot owned by Pies.

However, Menon refused to go ahead with the project unless ADEC agrees that the new premises will be spacious enough to accommodate 3,000 pupils.

Similarly the Abu Dhabi Indian School (ADIS) said it has received 2,500 applications since April 5, and has been using a yearly lottery system - to accommodate the rising number of pupils in their waiting list - for the past four years.