Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Abu Dhabi: Inspection reports for 185 private schools in the emirate of Abu Dhabi will be announced for the first time in July, senior education officials announced in the capital on Wednesday.

The inspections, of which two rounds have been conducted so far, categorise schools into three performance bands based on eight criteria, including pupils’ performance and progress, teaching quality, provision of protection and guidance for pupils, school facilities and resources, and school leadership and management.

“Although we have evaluated private schools since 2010, the results have not been released so far in order to allow schools time to ascertain and improve their standards. The main aim of making these reports public at the end of the 2012-2013 academic year is to raise the quality of education, and furnish parents with information to make the right choice of schools for their children,” said Hamad Al Daheri, executive director for private schools and quality assurance sector at the Adec.

He was speaking at a meeting attended by Adec officials, principals and school owners, where the progress and upcoming challenges in the private education sector were discussed.

The private education sector in Abu Dhabi currently enrols more than 200,000 pupils across the emirate, including 33 per cent of all Emirati pupils and 84 per cent of all expatriate pupils. The schools offer 15 different curricula between them, including Indian, American, British, Pakistani and UAE Ministry of Education.

According to details revealed at the meeting, nearly 17 per cent of 109 schools inspected as of December 2012 have been ranked as high performing, and listed in the A band. Another 25 per cent of schools rated satisfactory have been ranked within band B.

Band C pertains to schools that need require major improvements to raise overall effectiveness.

“We have conducted two rounds of inspections since the 2010-2011 academic year. Fifty-seven of them, representing 30 per cent of all private schools, have improved by 1 or more points of overall effectiveness between the two rounds. While this is a good sign, we hope all schools will demonstrate significant progress during the next inspections,” Al Daheri added.

DETAILED CLASSIFICATION

The inspections will be conducted once every two years for private schools in the emirate. During the next round of inspections, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) will reveal more detailed inspection scores, Al Daheri added.

“Each band is further subdivided into other stages. For example, Band A consists of excellent, very good and good schools. Band B includes satisfactory schools that are improving, and simply satisfactory schools. Band C consists of unsatisfactory, greatly unsatisfactory and weak schools. While these subdivisions will not be revealed in July, we will however announce them in 2015 at the end of the third round of inspections,” the official explained.

Public schools will also be checked once every three years. Results of the first round of inspections at public schools, which began this year, are expected to be released for the first time in 2015.

Al Daheri also said that enrolment at private schools is expected to increase at a rate of five per cent per year, which requires an investment of Dh5 billion to provide enough school seats by 2020.

“As more and more pupils enrol in private schools, we need to ensure that schools improve their quality of education continuously, and also help pupils to preserve their national identity,” he added.

Adec officials have called on school leaders to organise activities that enhance pupils’ understanding of the UAE culture, and to provide internships at private schools for Emiratis who are hoping to pursue education degrees.

By Samihah Zaman?Correspondent

Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.