Sharjah Private Education Authority, Arada partner to design future schools

The Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sharjah-based developer Arada to collaborate on designing future schools in the emirate.

The agreement will also see the launch of joint training programmes, initiatives and events to promote the educational sector in Sharjah, official news agency WAM reported.

With the aim of developing private educational institutions that live up to Sharjah’s future aspirations, #SPEA signed an MoU with Arada, between HE Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, Chairperson of SPEA, and HRH Prince Khalid bin Al Waleed, Vice Chairman of #Arada.

— هيئة الشـارقة للتعليم الخاص (@shjspea) June 1, 2022

Arada’s architecture team will work with SPEA to design schools in line with the existing contemporary and sustainable design standards by the two parties. The team is also planning to incorporate experiential and expansive spaces served by natural and artificial light within each future school to enhance mindfulness.

Outdoor learning spaces will serve as extensions of the classroom. Meanwhile, open areas in circulatory spaces as well as the provision of large, multi-purpose open areas will encourage exploration and flexible play as children interact among various age groups at school.

The first collaboration between SPEA and Arada took place last September with the launch of the first school at Aljada, Sharjah’s master community. SABIS International School – Aljada offers education to students from Kindergarten to Grade 3 and will host a capacity of 4,000 pupils when the second and final phase of the school opens in August 2022.

Dr Muhadditha Al Hashimi, chairperson of SPEA, said, “We are pleased to partner with Arada towards achieving our shared goals for imparting quality education to serve the public interests of Sharjah. We look forward to building schools that are in line with Sharjah’s ambitious and far-reaching education goals to become an attractive environment for students and teachers and enhance the wellbeing of the education society.”

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal, vice chairman of Arada, commented, “Delivering communities with access to high-quality schooling is a priority for Arada, and is in line with Sharjah’s wider commitment towards education as a whole. We are therefore pleased to be able to use our in-house architectural expertise to collaborate with SPEA to design progressive and sustainable academic spaces that will help shape Sharjah’s future generations.”

Since its launch in 2017, Arada has launched three master-planned projects in Sharjah, with a combined sales value of Dhs33.5bn. Earlier this week, Arada completed the issuance of a $350m sukuk, which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Read: Sharjah’s Arada raises $350m via dollar sukuk, lists on London Stock Exchange