DUBAI — No private or public school in the emirate will be closed down for not meeting the prescribed standards, but the bureau will work with them to improve things, Jameela Al Muhairi, Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau chief, said yesterday.
Addressing over 500 school principals, teachers, parents and international experts who convened for a conference here yesterday, she clarified, “That really isn’t what we’re here to do. Our job is to nurture and support schools found to have weaknesses, to improve them and keep them open, not close them down. We want to go further and place the new inspection bureau in a wider context of global thinking about school quality and school improvement.”
Touching upon the new bylaws approved by the UAE Cabinet for education, Al Muhairi told Khaleej Times that parents were an integral part of the education system and lauded efforts to draft a list of parents' rights.
“It is very necessary for parents to have rights,” she said adding that the purpose of the first annual DSIB conference was to create awareness among schools, parents and teachers about the role of inspection in school improvement.
She said that the bureau was “open to change” and in the next one year would work to evolve its criteria.
Dr Abdulaziz M Al Horr, Assistant Deputy Minister for Educational Planning and Curricula from the Qatar Ministry of Education, stressed the need for educators to define the change sought in education and importantly know where a school is heading.
Urging schools to invest in teachers, he said, “ It is important to treat them as a partner instead of a mere employee. They would then do their best and exceed expectations.”
He also said that schools had to develop strong relationships with parents as they were crucial for a child’s development.
Speaking on the realities facing Indian curriculum schools, Ashok Ganguly, Chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education in India, said that schools were grasping the expanding use of technology and were slowly coming to terms with its implications in teaching, learning and school management.
He also noted that inspection was a form of quality audit and was now an accepted fact that evaluation at regular intervals improves school effectiveness.
“So inspection leads to school improvement,” he added