Ajyal International School Offering Scholarships To Empower Female Emirati Leaders Of The Future

A fully funded scholarship programme with Ajyal International School is being offered to five outstanding Emirati girls in Year Groups 7-12.

The life-changing opportunity being offered by the school and its owner, the Bin Omeir Education Foundation, is aimed at empowering female students and helping young Emirati women to become future leaders in their chosen industries.

A scholarship panel will interview students and will be looking out for girls with outstanding academic credentials as well as those who exhibit qualities such as integrity, leadership and initiative, personal responsibility and care and compassion for others.

Ajyal International is committed to empowering UAE women and has introduced the programme as one of several measures to assist with this from a young age, which is known to be such a crucial time during a child’s formative years.

The school has three senior female leaders driving improvements in the school  – Yasmin Chaudhry, vice principal of early years and primary, Leanne Woodward, Assistant principal for early years and Eilish Sleator, Ajyal’s assistant principal for key stage 1. The influential trio ensure that female pupils are seeing the outcomes of determined women in the workplace and will lead the scholarship programme for the 2018/19 academic year.

Yasmin Chaudhry said: “We are in a privileged position to be able to offer five students such a fantastic opportunity and we look forward to meeting all the children who apply.

“Female students excel in Primary and Secondary education as well as University in the UAE, proving the country is a leading example of female empowerment in the region. However, as the girls grow older they seem to be more self-conscious and tend to hold back. There seems to be more awareness of what are deemed to be “girl” and “boy” activities and careers.

“At Ajyal, girls are encouraged to explore their talents and are given the opportunity to delve deeper into what are often deemed ‘male professions’, such as mathematics and chemistry.”

The Ajyal International curriculum is geared towards helping pupils into rewarding careers and links students directly to the world of employment.

Leanne Woodward, AJYAL’s assistant principal for early years stated “My philosophy is quite simple – there should be no ceiling to learning regardless of gender. The message that we give both parents and children from the outset is that the expectation is the same for boys and for girls. Girls and boys need to be given the same opportunities in order for them to fully thrive and develop holistically.