Parents weigh in on virtual options as technology makes inroads into education

Dubai: Grade one student Mohammed Sallah gets ready for his classes at 8 am every morning. As his father leaves for work and his mother prepares breakfast, Sallah starts his classes from the study table in his room. There are more than 500 such students in the UAE who have opted for virtual classes over traditional schools in the country. A Pakistan-based virtual school claims to be catering to more than 30 nationalities in one classroom.

“The best part of virtual schooling is it saves several hours in traffic for pick up and drop going to a traditional school,” Sallah’s father Jameel says. According to him, Sallah gets proper sleep and there is no chaos in the morning in the household. “Moreover, we save at least AED 6,000 every year that goes into transportation. It is a lot of saving for a mid-income family,” he says.

Two and a half years ago, Jameel opted for this system during the Covid-19 lockdown. “My son was going to a private school where the quality of education was not great, but that is what I could afford,” says Jameel, who got worried once the lockdown happened. “Whatever learning he was acquiring stopped suddenly,” he says.

It was then that he heard about virtual learning. “Initially I was dead against it. But then my wife said it is better to keep the child engaged in education rather than letting him spend time on YouTube and video games,” Jameel says.

“More importantly, the fees were one-fourth of what I was paying for regular schooling. I had no reason to go for any other option,” he recalls. Jameel is a happy parent now. “My son is learning in a secure home environment. Whatever extra money I was spending in the name of school fees is now spent on his other curricular activities,” he says.

The idea of the virtual school became the preferred choice during the pandemic when regular schooling was halted for over two years. The cost and tech-based novelty in academics have eventually encouraged many parents to move their children out of the walls of regular schools.

Raphel Schon was initially reluctant to send her child to a virtual school. “I used to believe that a regular school gives complete social learning to a child, which we cannot otherwise provide as working parents and nuclear families,” she says.

However, when she witnessed how bullying in school was destroying the personality and confidence of my 10-year-old daughter, I decided to try virtual school. Now my child is safe from the toxic environment and getting a good education while being in the comfort and peace of her house. She made lots of friends through her online school whom she meets often in public parks or play dates over the weekend,’ said the mother of Susan Schon.

“Owing to the increasing importance of technology in education and evolving educational needs of students, technology has become entirely integrated into the education system,” says Dr. Wahaj Kayani, the owner of Learn school which caters to more than 500 students only from UAE.

According to Dr. Kayani, this integration not only caters to educational needs, but also achieves new levels of productivity, and learning opportunities for students, and increases student support and engagement.

Kayani, says the most beautiful part of virtual school is that a class is truly global. “In one classroom we have students joining from different parts of the world, learning together from teachers but also from each other, creating a more tolerant future. One cannot find such exposure in a regular school,” he says.