The Emirate of Sharjah transitioned to a four-day workweek in January 2022. To support schools, educators, students, and families in this transition, the Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA), a regulatory body, conducted various stakeholder surveys in January 2023. The results of these surveys have provided SPEA with a clear set of indicators on satisfaction and challenges, related to such aspects as productivity, family financial impact, learning, work-life balance, wellbeing, health, and school operations. The results of the surveys will be reported publicly to all relevant stakeholder groups in May 2023. The results will provide insight into the ways in which schools, families, and educators have responded, both positively and negatively, to the changes. The results contributed to a roadmap to support SPEA as a regulatory body to suggest more initiatives supporting the wellbeing and productivity, The results also acted as a catalyst for the sister company Sharjah Education Academy (SEA) to improve the professional development courses provided to teachers and school caders. The research will briefly cover some of the main findings from the surveys; however, and more importantly, it will offer a theoretical account of the ways in which the Sharjah findings differ from the global literature on reduced time in school schemes. For example, there is a moderate body of literature in the United States on reduced time in school due to two factors: first, limited transportation options in rural areas requiring school systems to find alternate solutions, such as reducing the week from five days to four;

Authors:
Ahmed Aly Shaban Abdelmoteleb, Higher Colleges of Technology, United Arab Emirates
Matthew Robby, Sharjah Private Education Authority, United Arab Emirates
ted purinton, Sharjah Education Academy, United Arab Emirates
suleiman hamdan, Sharjah Private Education Academy, United Arab Emirates
Mokhtar Bourchak, Sharjah Private Education Academy, United Arab Emirates

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Ahmed Aly Shaban Abdelmoteleb is a University Assistant Professor/Lecturer at Higher Colleges of Technology - United Arab Emirates in United Arab Emirates

See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule

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