SHARJAH, 1st September, 2026 (WAM) -- His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, has directed the Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) not to collect any fees from Sudanese pupils at Sudan Private School and to refund every nominal fee already taken from parents.His Highness said he had established the school for members of Sharjah's Sudanese community who could not afford to enrol their children elsewhere in the emirate, intending it to be entirely free of charge, and that he follows the school's affairs directly and continuously.He also urged Sharjah government employees to complete their higher studies, announcing the start of the first cohort of the "Tumouh" (Aspiration) programme, in which 60 male and female staff are enrolled for a postgraduate diploma that will allow them to go on to a master's degree at the University of Exeter in the UK."Give back what you've taken from those in need."Speaking in a phone-in on the "Direct Line" programme, hosted by Mohammed Hassan Khalaf, Director-General of the Sharjah Broadcasting Authority, His Highness explained the school's origins, "We set up Sudan Private School because we found some Sudanese parents didn't have the means to enrol their children in schools, so we opened a private school for them and took on the running of the teachers and everything to do with the school without charging parents anything. It appears that the Sharjah Private Education Authority put some fees in place and called them 'nominal', but a nominal fee is a lot for someone in need, so we've instructed the Authority not to take any fees at all, large or small, from these pupils."He added, "We are in constant contact with those running the school, and we follow every detail. When a teacher hits a pupil, we end his employment immediately. When we find a teacher who isn't up to the job, we train and develop him and give him everything he needs to teach effectively — and if he does not improve, we remove him from the school. And we say, from the platform of 'Direct Line', Sharjah Private Education Authority, give back the money you've taken from people in need."His comments came in response to a message sent to the programme by the parent of Sudanese pupils, who wrote: "We, the children of the Sudanese community in Sharjah, were granted a school as an honour from His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah. After a full year of study, we were asked for high tuition fees and did not receive certificates unless we paid the outstanding fees along with this year's fees, even though the school was supposed to be entirely free as an honour from His Highness."His Highness also offered guidance to Sharjah government employees hoping to pursue postgraduate qualifications, recalling a talk he once gave to a room full of prospective students: "When postgraduate programmes launched in Sharjah, I gave a short address to students wanting to enrol. When I walked into the hall, I found it packed, and their questions were numerous, scattered and disconnected. I told them I'd come to share some advice from my own experience of postgraduate study — chief among it, postgraduate study has to be in a specialism that benefits people, society, and knowledge itself. I advise the postgraduate student to focus on their studies, to clear their mind for it and give it their full attention rather than treating it as a side pursuit. Building knowledge in a person's mind is like construction: it starts in nursery, then kindergarten, then school, then university, and so on — each a sequential, connected stage in laying the scientific foundations of the mind. If a single brick falls from that structure, the whole thing collapses."He continued, "So I say to our fellow students: I will not award a doctorate to someone who studies it half-heartedly, because tomorrow they'll be teaching young people and students, some of whom will go on to postgraduate study themselves. If a doctor teaches students material they haven't mastered, that's an academic disaster. So to postgraduate students, I say: please give knowledge its due. Seek out learning, gather information, and sail with us on the ship of knowledge and understanding. And to teachers, university heads and our educational institutions, I say: be kind to those who seek knowledge."He added that the Tumouh (Aspiration) programme, open to any government employee in the emirate wanting to develop themselves professionally, is a one-year postgraduate diploma, after which staff can go on to complete a master's degree at the University of Exeter with a further year of study. "Thankfully, the first cohort began their studies this year — 60 employees from various government departments in the emirate. I say to our people: please, work hard, and know that I am following your work, your contribution, and everything you bring to your roles."Turning to a different subject, His Highness shared an observation on the natural world, discussing the intelligence of crows and the origins of the Arabic word for the bird, "ghurab". He explained that crows come in many forms — some as large as eagles; some with white-flecked knees, like the Indian crow; and the Arabian crow, with its striking, glossy black plumage, which is attacked by outside crows because of its smaller size. Though native to the local environment, he said, its numbers have dwindled, prompting efforts to breed more of them—though they cannot yet be released, since they would be unable to compete with the far larger population of other crows.He traced the origin of the name to Medina, where the bird once fed on the city's dates through the summer before turning on chickens once the season ended, prompting locals to drive it off towards the coastal town of Rabigh, west of the city – a town His Highness recalled visiting in 1954 while travelling to perform Hajj, where most residents fished for a living. He described how certain fish species, thin-skinned and unable to withstand water pressure despite their size, stay near the surface after the summer season, unlike the thick-skinned grouper (groupers), which can dive into deeper waters.He went on to describe an old fishing method still used in Rabigh, known as "Al-daghwa", a net-based technique used to catch these surface-dwelling fish, which are then laid out to dry on the shore – the origin, he said, of the local expression telling a crow to "head west" in search of food. He also noted a trick some people use to drive crows away: hanging a dead crow from a tree, so the rest of the flock believes the tree itself caused its death and avoids the area."Intelligent creatures, but their intelligence can do harm"His Highness described crows as highly intelligent creatures with distinctive behaviour, recounting an incident at his own home: "I have small birds at home, and I was watching them when a crow suddenly swooped down and caught one in its beak. It couldn't injure the bird, since its beak is straight rather than pointed, so it carried the screeching bird to the fountain and tried to drown it. I've often seen them gather in groups, with one standing in the centre, as though they were plotting something. And as we've seen in a widely shared video, a crow found a half-empty water bottle and dropped small stones into it to raise the water level so it could drink. They're remarkably intelligent creatures – but sadly, that intelligence sometimes does harm to other creatures."His Highness closed his remarks with a call to good character and rising above grudges, citing lines from one of the great works of classical Arabic poetry on dignity, generosity, and forgiving the wrongs of relatives, by the Umayyad-era poet Al-Muqanna' Al-Kindi.


(Kaynak: WAM.ae)