With a four-day student-oriented program, including field demonstrations and a sports event, the United International Private School (UIPS), the first and oldest Philippine school in Dubai, celebrated its 25th founding anniversary on Saturday.
The UIPS was founded in September 1992 by two Emiratis, Colonel Mohammad Al Hersh and Dr. Mohammad Al Niyadi, based on their vision to provide quality education for the growing Filipino community, reported Gulf News.
“We knew 25 years ago that this community would grow and it’s grown to become one of the largest communities in the UAE now. We started with just a few students and every year we kept growing,” Al Niyadi, owner and chairman of the advisory council of UIPS, reportedly said.
From just 125 students and 20 faculty and staff then, the school has grown to have a student population of more than 2,000 from KG1 to Grade 11. Grade 12 will start in September, the report pointed out.
“We wanted to serve the Filipino community where they can have good education while away from their country, where the family is satisfied knowing that their children are in good hands. We didn’t look for money; we struggled financially to sustain the school in the beginning,” Al Niyadi, himself an educator, reportedly said.
Al Niyadi was quoted as saying that many people persuaded him to change his school from a Philippine-curriculum school to a British-curriculum school but he declined. “We said no. We committed ourselves to this community and we will continue.”
The UIPS is the first Filipino school to have been rated “good” by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) for two consecutive years. It is also the first Filipino school to have the approval to offer Grades 11 and 12, which is now a Philippine requirement, said the news portal.
“Filipinos are clannish. So the parents are so happy that UIPS offers KG1 to Grade 12. Now we have two classes, this year we will have additional classes,” Gulf News quoted Jenny Gonzales, HR and Relations manager at UIPS, as saying.
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