Examining UAE educators’ perspectives on the condensed school week

Abstract

This study examines the impact that the condensed school week has had on educators in the UAE. The goal is to provide insights into its effects on staff well-being, workplace productivity, student performance, and the wider community, with the ultimate aim of providing educators and policy makers with a greater awareness and understanding of the shortened school week. The investigation utilised a mixed-method approach, which included a survey questionnaire administered to the UAE teaching community in both private and public schools, with 71 participants responding. The results reveal several key findings around the effects of the shorter school week: firstly, the shortened school week positively impacts staff mental health, well-being, morale, productivity, and efficiency; secondly, parents express strong support for the shortened schedule; third, that variations in opinions exist within different demographic groups; and that younger students are more adversely affected by the compressed schedule than older students. Additionally, teachers working a four-day week in Sharjah report more favourable outcomes than those on a four-and-a-half-day week in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, indicating that the half-day Friday is detrimental to students and staff. These outcomes may be used by educational stakeholders both in the UAE and beyond to make more informed decisions on whether to adopt, continue, abandon, or possibly extend the shorter-school-week timetable. It is recommended that future researchers widen their respondent size, include academic and at-tendance data in their analysis and study the condensed school week over a longer timeframe in order to gain an even greater insight into the advantages and disadvantages of alternative school schedules.