Sharjah’s private education regulator has held a coordination meeting with headmasters across the emirate, using the session to review current education developments, reinforce communication with schools and examine how institutions are responding to operational and academic pressures, including distance-learning readiness and student wellbeing. The meeting was chaired by Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, chairperson of the Sharjah Private Education Authority, and attended by Ali Al Hosani, the authority’s director-general, other department leaders and education officials from Sharjah Education Academy.
The authority said the meeting formed part of a wider effort to keep schools closely aligned with policy changes and sector priorities. It also followed a meeting held the previous week with the Private School Principals Council, a platform set up to strengthen cooperation among school leaders, exchange experience and address challenges facing the private education sector in Sharjah. That sequencing matters because it suggests the authority is trying to move from one-off consultations towards a more structured model of engagement with school leadership.
At the centre of the discussion were three themes that have become increasingly important in Sharjah’s education policy: leadership in learning, the quality of students’ lives within the school environment and schools’ preparedness for remote instruction when needed. Officials also reviewed academic programmes offered by Sharjah Academy for Distance Education during this period, underscoring how digital continuity has become embedded in planning rather than treated as an emergency measure. Dr Al Hashimi said effective partnership between the authority and educational institutions was essential to managing changes ahead while maintaining the continuity of quality education. Al Hosani said the authority remained focused on helping private schools find practical solutions that support a sustainable educational environment.
That emphasis reflects the structure of Sharjah’s private education system itself. SPEA, established under Emiri Decree No. 45 of 2018, is the local authority responsible for regulating private education in the emirate, including schools, nurseries and training centres. On its public portal, the authority currently lists 134 schools in Sharjah, spanning a broad mix of curricula including Ministry of Education, British, American, Pakistani, Indian, French and others. Such diversity means coordination is not a purely administrative exercise; it is central to maintaining consistency across a fragmented and multilingual education landscape.
The meeting also comes after a series of policy moves that have kept school operators focused on flexibility. In early March, Sharjah authorities shifted all private schools and higher education institutions to distance learning for several days, saying the arrangement covered students, teachers and administrative staff across the emirate. SPEA’s school calendar for the 2025-26 academic year also shows a one-week spring break from 16 March to 22 March, illustrating how the academic cycle has required careful sequencing this term. For school leaders, the latest coordination call appears aimed at ensuring that any short-term disruption does not spill over into weaker classroom delivery or communication gaps with parents.
Sharjah’s officials are also trying to anchor these operational adjustments in a longer reform agenda. SPEA’s 2025-2028 strategy highlights e-learning, remote education platforms and smart education as part of the authority’s future direction, while earlier strategy sessions convened school principals, nursery leaders and sector experts to discuss sustainability, inclusive education, wellbeing and the schools of the future. Those priorities have been echoed in quality-improvement initiatives such as the Itqan programme, which reviews school performance, and in the authority’s repeated emphasis on supportive services rather than regulation alone.
Performance data gives the authority a case for pressing schools to keep improving while also signalling that Sharjah wants stronger international standing. In January 2025, SPEA said private schools in Sharjah ranked 10th globally in mathematics and 13th in science at eighth-grade level in TIMSS 2023 out of 72 education systems, with dozens of schools meeting or exceeding international averages across grade levels and subjects. Those figures offer political and institutional momentum for closer engagement with school leaders, particularly as authorities seek to turn strong comparative outcomes into broader improvements in student experience, leadership quality and resilience.
The authority said the meeting formed part of a wider effort to keep schools closely aligned with policy changes and sector priorities. It also followed a meeting held the previous week with the Private School Principals Council, a platform set up to strengthen cooperation among school leaders, exchange experience and address challenges facing the private education sector in Sharjah. That sequencing matters because it suggests the authority is trying to move from one-off consultations towards a more structured model of engagement with school leadership.
At the centre of the discussion were three themes that have become increasingly important in Sharjah’s education policy: leadership in learning, the quality of students’ lives within the school environment and schools’ preparedness for remote instruction when needed. Officials also reviewed academic programmes offered by Sharjah Academy for Distance Education during this period, underscoring how digital continuity has become embedded in planning rather than treated as an emergency measure. Dr Al Hashimi said effective partnership between the authority and educational institutions was essential to managing changes ahead while maintaining the continuity of quality education. Al Hosani said the authority remained focused on helping private schools find practical solutions that support a sustainable educational environment.
That emphasis reflects the structure of Sharjah’s private education system itself. SPEA, established under Emiri Decree No. 45 of 2018, is the local authority responsible for regulating private education in the emirate, including schools, nurseries and training centres. On its public portal, the authority currently lists 134 schools in Sharjah, spanning a broad mix of curricula including Ministry of Education, British, American, Pakistani, Indian, French and others. Such diversity means coordination is not a purely administrative exercise; it is central to maintaining consistency across a fragmented and multilingual education landscape.
The meeting also comes after a series of policy moves that have kept school operators focused on flexibility. In early March, Sharjah authorities shifted all private schools and higher education institutions to distance learning for several days, saying the arrangement covered students, teachers and administrative staff across the emirate. SPEA’s school calendar for the 2025-26 academic year also shows a one-week spring break from 16 March to 22 March, illustrating how the academic cycle has required careful sequencing this term. For school leaders, the latest coordination call appears aimed at ensuring that any short-term disruption does not spill over into weaker classroom delivery or communication gaps with parents.
Sharjah’s officials are also trying to anchor these operational adjustments in a longer reform agenda. SPEA’s 2025-2028 strategy highlights e-learning, remote education platforms and smart education as part of the authority’s future direction, while earlier strategy sessions convened school principals, nursery leaders and sector experts to discuss sustainability, inclusive education, wellbeing and the schools of the future. Those priorities have been echoed in quality-improvement initiatives such as the Itqan programme, which reviews school performance, and in the authority’s repeated emphasis on supportive services rather than regulation alone.
Performance data gives the authority a case for pressing schools to keep improving while also signalling that Sharjah wants stronger international standing. In January 2025, SPEA said private schools in Sharjah ranked 10th globally in mathematics and 13th in science at eighth-grade level in TIMSS 2023 out of 72 education systems, with dozens of schools meeting or exceeding international averages across grade levels and subjects. Those figures offer political and institutional momentum for closer engagement with school leaders, particularly as authorities seek to turn strong comparative outcomes into broader improvements in student experience, leadership quality and resilience.
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