Distance learning is back in Dubai for some schools as Omicron surge upends the start of term

As the Christmas holidays neared their end, the ‘will they?-won’t they?’ game began in households with school-aged sprogs. I’m referring, of course, to the uncertainty over whether schools would reopen amid the spread of Omicron. 

Let’s just say I was super keen for my boys to return to the classroom. They’d only had about a week of schooling in December due to the long National Day holiday, then a three-week school holiday that felt like five weeks. 

There was also the small matter of my 16-yr-old’s GCSEs, the first of which (maths) is next Monday, and his mock – or as he calls them ‘fake’ – exams. (No matter how many times I tell him that if exams are cancelled, they’ll look at his mocks to grade him, he still insists they’re not real!)

At first, the KHDA announced that Dubai schools would reconvene face-to-face. Oh, how I rejoiced. It felt like Christmas again. 

But then came the eleventh-hour URGENT email from school, the day before the start of term. Due to the high number of cases, there weren’t enough staff to open the school. Too many students were also testing positive, having travelled over Christmas or stayed in Dubai, where Omicron is marching forth relentlessly. Home learning would commence the next day for the first week. A circuit breaker, so to speak – and we all know how those go. 

I commiserated with my fellow mum friends and grew nostalgic for simpler, before-Covid times. You know, when you took it for granted that the start of term meant just that, and people used to say “There’s something going around.”

“And you didn’t have to lock yourself indoors for a week if you got something,” my DH, who is currently contained in hotels on all his layovers, sighed. 

I fondly remembered people saying they had “a bit of a cold” and communications that didn’t use the word ‘safe’ every second sentence.

My sons, on the other hand, were thrilled at the school closure. The next morning, they rolled out of bed approximately a minute before online registration. I think my eldest actually logged on from bed.

Thirty minutes later, my youngest – who will barely even let me in his room during remote school, other than for waitress services to deliver teas and snacks – sounded like he was just messing around online with his mates, judging by the raucous laughter I could hear through the wall. My 16-year-old appeared searching for tape.

“Sellotape,” I asked, confused. Surely we were well past the days of craft projects and modelling by year eleven. Weren’t they studying, for – you know – exams?

“Yep,” he replied, banging a drawer shut and opening the one below. He found what he was looking for and grinned. 

“What on earth do you need tape for?”

“To tape up my camera,” he unashamedly admitted, “in case the teacher asks me to put it on.”

“Whaaat?” I almost shrieked, aghast. 

I pity the poor teachers talking to themselves and attempting to engage with a classroom of black squares on their screens all day, I really do.