DUBAI // Parents will be able to read detailed reports on the standard of education in every school in Dubai under a tough inspection regime to be introduced in the emirate in the coming academic year.
The Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) will begin inspections of public and private schools in October, setting minimum standards intended to improve quality over the next few years.
The DSIB will publish an annual report based on the results of the inspections, and also an individual report on each school. These will be made publicly available on the bureau’s website and the schools’ own sites, although schools will not be officially ranked by the Government or placed in league tables.
“We are gearing towards improvement within schools,” said Jameela al Muhairi, the head of the DSIB at the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which is based at Academic City. “Due to the many different curricula we have in Dubai, we will have inspectors who are experts in each curriculum. The standard of the inspection will be applicable to each and every school in Dubai.”
She said publication of the reports would enable parents and prospective pupils to check on how schools were performing.
Consultants are still considering exactly what detail will be included in the individual school reports.
But Ms Muhairi said: “People from all over the world come to Dubai to live and work, and enrol in our education system. They are looking for quality education and with these inspections, they can be assured to the quality of the school from an official standard set by the Dubai Government.”
Inspections will cover seven key areas: assessing pupils’ academic progress; personal and social development; teaching and learning; standards of curriculum and whether or not they meet educational needs; standards of security and support for pupils; leadership and management; and overall school performance.
The DSIB decision to introduce general inspections was taken after a pilot study in April on five test schools, three private and two public. Inspection criteria will be flexible to take account of the multiplicity of education systems followed in Dubai schools.
“We have so many different nationalities here: English, India, Arab,” said Ms Muhairi. “We have a total of 13 different curricula in Dubai, so we will have inspectors who are experts in [each].”
Inspectors will collect evidence from each school and examine whether required standards are being met. Preliminary inspections will take place at the beginning of the academic year, each lasting between three and five days and monitoring more than 100 classes depending on the size of the school.
As well as observing classes at work, the inspectors will hold meetings with teachers, students and parents and study the daily running of the schools. Based on the assessments, schools will be expected to devise plans of action to implement proposals for quality improvements contained in inspection reports.
“If weaknesses have been identified, we will offer recommendations and then conduct a reinspection after three months or six months, depending on the issue,” said Ms Muhairi. If the school still fails to comply, further action will be taken, although it will be left to schools to decide for themselves how to deal with the behaviour and performance of individual teachers.
Initially, schools will be notified a few weeks in advance of the dates of inspection. “We are assessing the quality of education, rather than what pipe or door needs to be fixed,” said Ms Muhairi, defending the prior notice approach rather than on-the-spot inspections. Schools could not suddenly improve and change their systems with only a fortnight’s notice.
The DSIB and the KHDA have been working with the Ministry of Education to decide the format of the inspections, which will also apply to internationally accredited schools based in Dubai. “We want to adopt the international standard for the curricula, similar to what has been established in Abu Dhabi with the Education Council,” said Ms Muhairi.
In addition, every school will work towards the creation of a board of governors, a step Ms Muhairi described as “necessary for the school and for the parents and for the local community”.