The International Schools Review Forum

What do schools in the Mideast do during Ramadan? Do students have a reduced schedule? Do staff (teachers) abide by no drinking or eating during the day while at school? Thoughts and experiences?

In Egypt, students and teachers went in late and left early during Ramadan (it made for a very easy day). We were not expected to fast but we did try and to avoid being very blatant about eating or drinking during the school day (or out in public before sundown).

Ramadan was quite the interesting time with so many people going the whole day without food, water, caffeine, nicotine etc. It was not a good idea to be on the roads when everyone was rushing to Iftar to gorge themselves before the next day's fast.

School in Saudi had lunch, but also a prayer room set up during Ramadan only for our Muslim students to pray during that time. No reduced hours.

Other schools varied.

My school in Oman didn't start the school year until after Ramadan. So it really does vary by school/country.

And Ramadan starts earlier every year (11 days) so that changes how the school might approach it from year to year. When we were in Egypt we had been in school around 3 weeks when it started and we wondered how the school would handle it the following year when Ramadan would be starting almost at the same time as students were supposed to start. This year some schools might just start summer early since it starts in early June.

It's typical to have reduced hours, maybe a six hour work day. Also typical for the school to forbid public eating and drinking (depending on the country this could be a law and outside of the school's control), while providing a private place for teachers and students to eat if they are not fasting.
It is also common to time vacations to match to some degree, but it's not possible or even recommended to take the month off every year. After all, Muslims are fasting to practice humility, deprivation and compassion, so turning the whole thing into a vacation would defeat the purpose. Look for about a week off at the end of Ramadan, for Eid, which is a holiday.
But it all varies from school to school and country to country. Best to talk to people where you are going.

From my experience around the ME either the school year means you miss most if not all of Ramadam or the schedule/school life shifts. Muslim and locals staff come in later and leave earlier. Expats may end up working the same hours or a shift of an hour or so later with a later finish. Catering facilities are likely to be closed at school (and outside) so you bring your own and eat away from and out of sight of Muslims. Depends on the country/school - in some places they may object to staff bringing their own food and drink. If it is a concern, ask before you sign up.

It will be interesting to see how schools cope this year, as it lands directly in the middle of the exam season. It could be worse though - back home in Scotland, daylight in June is often from about 3.30am until 11pm (or later) so it's actually more of a problem for Muslims there than in the ME!

Shouldn't be. In places with "extreme" amounts of daylight, either too short or too long, Muslims are advised to follow the daylight timings from Mecca.

In far off countries with weird hours of daylight, the Islamic Council usually sets the times. That's what happens in Northern Canada, where some localities get 24/7 daylight for 3 months.

My experience was that the local council set the times.