ABU DHABI — A recent report issued by the Economic and Planning Department in Abu Dhabi shows that more students of public schools are moving to private ones.
As per the report, the number of pupils in public schools was 137,5657 in the academic year 2002-03, which came down to 125,729 students in 2006-07.
The report also shows that the number of students in the private schools has increased by 33 per cent from 95,667 in the year 2002-03, to 127,144 in the academic year 2006-07.
Analysts believe the report shows positive indicators as private education plays a vital role in the country by improving the standards of education in the country.
Dr Maryam Al Ali, Director of Private Education Supervising Unit at the Ministry of Education (MoE), affirmed that the wide range of curricula was an important factor for the increasing number of students at private schools.
The private schools are providing American, British as well as Indian syllabi that allows parents from different communities to choose the ones they deem most suitable for their children.
“Moreover, this trend can also be attributed to the fact that thousands of new families move to work in the UAE every year,” said Dr Al Ali.
She, however, stressed that the standards of education at the public schools too were among the best in the world.
“This (more students joining private schools) is a natural result of the greater options of syllabi to choose from for the expatriates,” she said.
Ahmed Abdul Aziz