DUBAI // Schoolchildren are being put through a series of tests to help determine whether Dubai’s education system measures up to the rest of the world.
Yesterday, a group of 15-year-olds in Dubai sat the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examination, the first time it has been taken here.
The exam is used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to rank education systems around the world.
The end result is an OECD report which aims to help improve education globally through a study of the strengths and weaknesses of school systems worldwide.
Although this is just a trial run for Dubai – only 1,800 pupils from 64 schools are taking the exam – the emirate will participate fully next year. The OECD administers the test every three years, with the next due in 2009.
However, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority of Dubai is administering the test now as a trial run to work out any problems in the system.
“It is only by measuring how our schools are performing that we can properly know which areas need to be improved,” said Fatma al Marri, the chief executive of the Dubai Schools Agency. “PISA is one step we are taking towards this.”
The Federal Government has made education reform its top priority, and it hopes that all UAE schools will eventually reach international standards.
The economy relies heavily on highly skilled foreign workers, which the Government hopes to change. To do so, it needs schools which produce well-educated graduates.
Last November, Dubai began participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) programme, an international test which is used to measure student achievement in maths and is administered by the International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The results will be published in December.
The PISA exam, which was introduced in 2000, covers mathematics, science and literacy, and its goal is to measure how well teenagers nearing the end of their compulsory education are prepared to “meet the challenges of today’s knowledge societies”.
Each PISA cycle focuses on a particular subject area: in 2000 it was reading, in 2003 it was maths and in 2006 it was science. In 2006, 57 countries representing 90 per cent of the world economy took part, but the UAE was not among them.
Taiwan ranked first in maths, Finland was first in science and South Korea was first in reading. Typically, between 4,500 and 50,000 pupils take the PISA test and they are selected from a random sample of public and private schools.
“We want to raise standards across education in Dubai, and that includes the status of teachers, the quality of teaching, and, of course, the outcomes of the teaching,” said Ms Marri.
“As part of our remit to match education with the needs of the workplace, this testing of pupils towards the end of their compulsory education is very important to us.”
With the introduction of PISA and TIMMS testing, education officials will know where Dubai schools stand in relation to their international counterparts. However, individual school performances will not be made public.
Kathryn Lewis