Al Saidiya School marks anniversary

MUSCAT: The Ministry of Education on Monday celebrated the eighty-year anniversary of the establishment of Al Saidiya School in Muscat, under the auspices of Sayyid Saud bin Hilal bin Hamad al Busaidy, Minister of State and Governor of Muscat. Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed al Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education and Nasr bin Badr al Busaidy, Directorgeneral of Customer Experience with Oman Post attended the ceremony.

The ceremony included a speech of the Omani National Committee delivered by Amna al Balushi, the committee’s Under-secretary. She said: “Education in the Sultanate has witnessed many transformations and historical junctures, from the dhikr circles in mosques, through schools established by scholars, to a new stage when Sultan Said bin Taimour ordered to establish Al Saidiya School in Muscat, for regular education, in 1940. The school continued in graduating its students from then until the year 2000, to create and prepare the generations to contribute building the renaissance of Oman and its civilisation.”

The chief guest and the attendees toured the photo gallery, which displays images of many educational documents presented for the first time to the museum visitors, such as the student records, preparation books, student certificates, and administrative circulars.

After that, a commemorative postage stamp was issued to commemorate the school’s eightyear anniversary. The post stamp will be available in all Oman Post branches throughout Oman.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the Sultanate has approved flight operations using the Boeing 737 Max.

Oman decided to temporarily suspend all operations of 737 Max aircraft in and out of all airports in the Sultanate from March 12, 2019.

The CAA said 737 Max will be allowed from and to the airports of the Sultanate if the airline wishes to operate that type of aircraft.

It may be noted that the fleet of the national carrier Oman Air includes five 737 Max aircraft, and the authority assures that those aircraft will be authorised to restart operation after it has fulfilled all the requirements for aircraft validity and pilots training.

The grounding of 737 Max seriously disrupted Oman Air’s expansion plans and it had to continuously cancel some of the scheduled flights until the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic that led to the serious closure of all kinds of passenger air traffic.

The decision was taken after Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 bound for Nairobi from Adis

Ababa crashed minutes after takeoff on March 10, 2019, killing all 157 people on board and prompting the carrier to ground the rest of its fleet.

It was the second crash of the 737 MAX 8 after Indonesian Lion Air crashed 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta on a domestic flight.

The Sultanate has completed all technical requirements for airworthiness and training and gives priority to the highest levels of aviation safety, CAA said.

The necessary measures and requirements for air safety on this model of aircraft are based on the success of Tests and checks conducted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in its capacity as the regulatory authority of the country of manufacture of the aircraft, which has been also approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and civil aviation authorities in some friendly countries.

Any foreign airline operating this aircraft to the Sultanate’s airports will also be subject to an audit of aircraft airworthiness procedures, including the license and training certificates granted to it by the countries of registration of these aircraft.

TREE TRIMMING

Meanwhile, some trees on the western side of the Muscat International Airport opposite the landing area of an aircraft will be trimmed to ensure safe flight movements.

The decision was taken as per the coordinated efforts between the Municipality of Muscat and Oman Airports to determine the appropriate altitudes for safe air navigation around the Muscat International Airport.

“Based on the request of Oman Airports regarding the height of the trees on the western side of the area opposite the landing aircraft area Muscat International Airport, it was decided to some trees in line with the permissible rights.”

The Muscat Municipality said that it will use appropriate methods and will take care of the afforestation system at the site with periodic maintenance work.

“The Municipality hopes that the public will understand these measures are taken for the safety of air navigation,” the municipality said.