The Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, has warned the state school system has “real and serious problems” that will take up to five years to correct.
With four out of 10 Emirati parents choosing to educate their children privately, Dr Hassan is promising a package of reforms including new curriculums, better teacher training and international standards of learning.
Dr Hassan said it would take until 2013 to complete improvements to government-run schools, of which there are more than 700.
“We want to make sure the quality of education in public schools gives us good graduates who will be capable of joining a university in the UAE or outside, and for them to be active learners – individual learners who have confidence in themselves and responsibility for the nation,” he said.
Dr Hassan said eventually schools would be evaluated by external organisations to ensure they were up to international standards.
“This is one of the tasks ahead of us. That gives us the confidence that our schools can meet these international requirements and our students are up to that level.”
Several parallel initiatives are in place to improve standards in state schools, including the Public-Private Partnership for Public School Management (PPP), in which education consultancies have been brought in from overseas to help run schools. In the PPP schools, there is less emphasis on rote learning, with students encouraged to think critically and improve their analytical skills.
Curriculum standards based on international best practice have been introduced for the first time for many subjects at PPP schools.
There are 61 PPP schools and 57 more schools will be added to the programme in the next academic year, which starts in September.
A key part of the PPP programme is the training of teachers so they can implement new methods. Another reform has been the creation of Al Ghad schools, where maths and science are taught in English.
“When we have two or three initiatives running at the same time, you have the opportunity to evaluate them. I believe in competition,” Dr Hassan said.
Kathryn Lewis and Daniel Bardsley