DUBAI — The Flilipino schools in the UAE are facing a dilemma whether to open two more grade-levels (grades XI and XII) to meet the need of their students who want to continue their education here after finishing Grade X.
The issue has become a major concern for all Philippine Schools Overseas (PSO) since the Philippine education system requires students to study until Grade X only, after which they can proceed to college.
Elizabeth Comia, Principal of United International Private School, Dubai, said that in the UAE and in other countries, they have Grades XI and XII before students go to the tertiary level of education.
This May, 43 Philippine schools, including eight in the UAE, met here in Dubai to resolve the issue as early as possible. However, they are required to tie up the programme with the Department of Education in Manila and the Ministry of Education and Knowledge Human Development Authority (KHDA) of the UAE.
Comia said 95 per cent of the students had been sent back to the Philippines for college after finishing Grade X. "Majority of the parents prefer their children to stay with them in the Emirates but they have no choice but to send them back home as they cannot enrol them in institutes of higher learning here because of the wide disparity in the curriculum they follow," she explained.
"If Philippine schools expand the levels to Grades XI and XII, the Filipinos have the choice to let their children continue to stay in the Emirates with them and just decide later to either send them home or study in the universities here," she added.
PSO records show that 99 per cent of the students at the Philippine schools here and elsewhere are Filipino children and the remaining one per cent comprises children of couples with either the mother or the father a Filipino.
In UAE, only eight Philippine schools have been established so far. One of the factors for this is the requirement of the UAE government for them to build their own buildings. They are forbidden to operate in villas proliferating around, which they can easily lease.
These two issues top the recent annual meeting of the PSO, attended by 30 schools with government permit from the Department of Education in Manila, nine schools with provisional permit, and four schools applying permit to operate. Of the 43 participating schools, eight are in UAE, two in Qatar, one in Oman, three in Libya, two in Kuwait, one in Greece, two in China, one in Bahrain and 24 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Started in 1999, the Seventh conference of PSO, which carried the theme "Setting Standards, Raising Achievements", revolved around four objectives.
These were policy directives of schools and education initiatives for raising achievements; commitment for partnerships among Philippine schools, administration, management and community; raising standards of educational curriculum; and, strengthening collaboration and networking among Philippine School Overseas through Inter-Agency Committees on Philippine School Overseas.