Moving forward the time of Friday prayer confuses the routine of leaving school and joining “mosques.”

The decision of the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowments to amend the time for holding Friday prayers in the state’s mosques, to become exactly 12:45 noon, starting on Friday, the second of January 2026, renewed the demands of students’ families to include Friday as part of the weekend, or to convert it to a distance learning system, while educators confirmed that the decision does not conflict with school hours on Friday, but it will deprive a segment of school bus students from performing group prayers, while the educational authorities in the country did not issue any comments. On the decision or updates on its part regarding school hours on Fridays.

In detail, the decision to amend the time for holding Friday prayers created controversy on social media sites and groups of students’ families, noting that in the previous times they would finish their work and go to schools to pick up their children and bring them home, then go to Friday prayers. However, after moving forward the prayer time and keeping the work time as it is, they will have two options: either receiving their children or performing Friday prayers in the mosque.

“Emirates Today” monitored the opinions of students’ families and readers via social media platforms, in which they called on educational authorities and employers to update working hours, after the decision to advance the Friday prayer time, and attributed their request to the crowding in the areas surrounding the schools, due to the accumulation of students’ cars, which increases the time of entry and exit, in addition to that many of them work in places far from their children’s schools, and the time between their departure and heading to schools and the return home with the children will be insufficient to catch Friday prayers in the mosque.

The parents of the students: Muhammad Naeem, Ahmed Salah, Khaled Mansour, and Abdullah Al-Saadi confirmed that the decision to set the times for Friday prayers is the prerogative of scholars, and they know best the interest and benefit of the general public, but schools must take into account the interest of the students, and encourage them to perform prayers, as this refines their morals and trains them to adhere, which requires flexibility in Friday work hours, either by turning it into a weekly holiday or implementing distance education.

Their opinion was supported by the families of the students: Ahmed Abdel Rahman, Ahmed Fathi, Mona Saleh, and Maryam Al-Nashar, pointing out the need to take into account the working hours of parents and the end times of school, and to allow them to pick up their children from school and return them home and then go to perform prayers, especially since many families have young sons and girls, and it will be difficult to take them from home to the mosque directly to join the prayer.

Students’ families unanimously agreed that the best solution would be for Friday to become a school holiday, so that the study would be from Sunday to Thursday only, with the three hours of study scheduled on Fridays being compensated for by 45 minutes daily, by adding a class to each school day, or converting the study on Friday to the distance learning system, as was previously implemented last Ramadan, when the “Ramadan with the Family” initiative was implemented, and in this case the study would be from Sunday to Thursday in person, and Friday remotely, while maintaining the number of school hours. currently applied.

On the other hand, educators in public and private schools: Hilal Saif, Darwish Abdullah, Bassam Tawfiq, Noura Hashem, Manal Youssef, and Nadine Taj, confirmed that the schools did not receive any updates regarding working hours on Friday, pointing out that the new time for Friday prayers, which the mosques will implement starting from the new year, does not conflict with the end of school work, as it ends in most schools at 11:45, but the conflict may appear with students registered for the bus service, as The journey time to and from the mosque is about an hour, which may hinder students from performing group prayers in the mosque.

They expected that the study would continue on Friday as long as it remained an official working day in the country, and that students would leave 30 to 45 minutes early, ruling out the idea of ​​converting the study to a distance education system, as this proposal was rejected more than once when it was proposed, due to the large number of students absent during it, and it was replaced by stiffening the penalties for absence on Fridays, to oblige students to attend.

They confirmed that the decision to update the working hours on Fridays, or to maintain them, will become clear during the last week of the winter break, or the first week of the second semester, after the students return to their classes starting on January 5, 2026. All students and their families will be informed of it, and the decision taken will be the most appropriate for the students and the educational process based on several criteria that are taken into account when approving the working hours, including the number of school hours per year, achieving knowledge accumulation, enhancing the psychological and mental health of students, in addition to strengthening interdependence. Between education and society in its goals and priorities.

Parents of students:

• The time between the end of work and prayer is short.

Educators:

• “Bus students” will not pray in the mosque.