Dubai, May 21, 2008 – Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) is making history as it undertakes an international quality assessment entirely in Arabic.
For the first time ever, the world-recognised ISO9001:2000 Quality Management System procedure has been translated from English into Arabic - in-house at KHDA - and its training programme is being conducted in Arabic.
Everything connected with the lengthy certification process, first being carried out at Dubai Schools Agency before spreading to other education agencies and the Authority itself, has been translated.
Already, one section at the Schools Agency has completed Stage One of the certification process, an important milestone towards the Authority’s strategic goal of implementing the Dubai Government’s Excellence Programme. It is expected to progress to Stage Two certification by the end of this month.
When the Authority gets full certification, it will also be the first such body to accomplish ISO9001 Certification in the United Arab Emirates. The KHDA has embarked on the ISO programme to demonstrate its commitment to transparency, accountability, and improving the service it can offer to schools, parents, and its other stakeholders.
The ISO programme is overseen by Lloyds Register of Quality Assurance as the training and certification body, and from November of this year they will do six-monthly surveillance audits so that it can maintain its certification and improve the system continuously.
Fatma Al Marri, CEO of Dubai’s Schools Agency, said: “This programme is part of our continuous commitment to the highest standards possible. Every authority, company, or organisation should always be learning how to improve and we are very happy to have outside auditors to help us in this process.
“We are also proud to have carried out the entire process in Arabic for the first time in such a short span of time, involving every one in this process along the way.”
The International Organisation for Standardisation is an international body of representatives from national standards organisations. It was founded in 1947 and its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland.