Our Own English High School, Sharjah (UAE)

The third primary-secondary school promoted by the Dubai-based GEMS which manages 65 schools in eight countries, Our Own English High School, Sharjah (UAE) recently celebrated its silver jubilee with pomp and pageantry

On December 5, 2007, Our Own English High School (OOEHS) — one of the first primary-cum-secondary schools for children of Indian migrants in Sharjah — celebrated its silver jubilee with pomp and pageantry. The school’s Silver Jubilee Grand Finale was the culmination of a series of events, concerts and contests which included a biennial exhibition, an inter-school extempore speech competition, an inter-school essay contest, several cultural shows and release of a documentary film (Lead Kindly Light) on the history of this institution — the first Varkey Group school in Sharjah (pop.750,000).

Our Own English High School, Sharjah (estb. 1982) was the third primary-secondary promoted by the Dubai-based Varkey Group of schools (rechristened Global Education Management Systems (GEMS) in 1998), which during the past four decades has grown into Asia’s largest transnational private school chain, managing 65 schools in eight countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, UAE, Qatar, Libya, Kuwait, Jordan and India with an aggregate enrollment of 70,000 students.

Our Own English High School and Varkey Group/GEMS are the myriad flowers of a seed planted by banker turned educationist K.S. Varkey and his wife Mariamma, promoters of primary schools mainly for children of the Indian diaspora who flocked to the United Arab Emirates in the wake of the explosion of crude oil prices between 1973-79, to build the infrastructure of the seven UAE sheikhdoms. In September 1968, the Varkeys promoted the first OOEHS, Dubai with an initial complement of 21 students and four teachers. Subsequently several other primary-cum-secondaries were promoted in Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, and Al Ain under the visionary leadership of Sunny Varkey, incumbent chairman of GEMS.

Spread across seven acres Our Own English High School, Sharjah (UAE) is a kindergarten-Plus Two day school with an aggregate enrollment of 11,000 students instructed by 450 teachers, and prepares students for the school leaving class X and XII examinations of the Delhi-based Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which has over 9,000 primary-cum-secondaries across India and other parts of the world affiliated with it. In 2007, of the 213 Our Own English High School, Sharjah (UAE) students who wrote CBSE’s class X examination, 93.4 percent passed in the first division. Students who wrote the class XII exam (2007) went one better. Of the 139 who wrote the examination, 98.5 percent passed in the first division.

“During the past quarter century, OOEHS, Sharjah has satisfactorily achieved its objective of providing quality education at affordable fees to the growing expat, particularly Indian, community in Sharjah and the neighbouring emirates. While 95 percent of our 11,000 student body is of Indian origin, we also have students from other Asian countries such as Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan on our rolls. Our academic results are excellent and OOEHS, Sharjah students are regularly admitted into prestigious institutions of higher education including the IITs in India, Oxford, Cambridge, Columbia and Boston universities,” says Dr. Farooq Ahmad Wasil, principal of OOEHS, Sharjah since 1993. An alumnus of Kashmir and Jawaharlal Nehru (Delhi) universities, Wasil boasts over 25 years of experience in the field of education and was honoured by former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam with the best teacher award in 2005.

As a constituent unit of the professionally managed GEMS, which specialises in delivering international standard private school education, OOEHS, Sharjah’s expansion has been generously funded by GEMS. Last year the school, which was operating two shifts for boys and girls separately, inaugurated a separate boys’ campus on a four acre plot in Sharjah. While the main seven acre campus houses 7,500 students, the boys’ campus has an enrollment of more than 3,000 students.

Inevitably, both campuses are equipped with superior infrastructure. The school library houses 25,000 volumes and also provides access to electronic databases including CD-ROMs and audio tapes. Other facilities include a multi-purpose auditorium, state-of-the-art computer labs with more than 175 terminals, audio-visual rooms, kindergarten activity rooms, 14 SMART boards, and 18 mobile trolleys, each consisting of a computer and LCD projector.

Sports and games are also given full institutional attention with the school offering play and coaching facilities for cricket, basketball, football, hockey, volleyball, badminton, and table tennis. Children are ferried to and fro by a fleet of 87 air-conditioned buses in Sharjah, Dubai and the neighbouring emirates of Ajman and Um-al-Quwain. By way of co-curricular education Our Own English High School, Sharjah offers students opportunities to participate in activities ranging from calligraphy, debating, painting, dance, roller skating, drama to photography and web design.

Despite being an Indian school delivering the secular curriculum of the Delhi-based CBSE in Islamic UAE, the Our Own English High School, Sharjah management claims it receives full support and encouragement from the local governments. “The ministry of education is very supportive of our mission to provide quality school education for all. We are grateful for their help and encouragement,” says Wasil.

With the school marking its silver jubilee last month, Our Own English High School, Sharjah is striving on to strengthen its position as UAE’s most preferred secondary for students from the subcontinent. On the drawing board is an ambitious plan to set up a model primary school campus in Sharjah, and to develop a highly sophisticated IT-driven curriculum. “We also want to contribute to strengthening the teacher development programmes offered by Centre for Advancement of Teacher Education, a division of GEMS. Several high quality CPD (continuous professional development) programmes are in the offing. In whatever we do, we are driven by GEMS’ four core educational values: world citizenship, universal values, leadership qualities and forward thinking,” says Wasil.

Twenty five years down the road, OOEHS Sharjah has attained a benchmark and reputation in education that most schools take decades to achieve. And its growth and expansion story is far from over. 

Summiya Yasmeen