DUBAI // Thousands of pupils from nearly 150 schools will learn this week how they did in tests designed to assess the quality of schools in the emirate.
Results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an examination that tests the knowledge of fourth- and eighth-grade pupils, are due to be released this week.
Dubai is participating in the study for the first time. Nearly 8,500 pupils in 144 schools were tested during 2007.
TIMSS data were collected in dozens of countries in 1995, 1999 and 2003. The results allow participants to measure student progress against international norms.
TIMMS is administered by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, an organisation of national research institutions and governmental research agencies housed at Boston College in the US.
The Dubai School Agency (DSA), a department of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), organised the testing. Pupils in Dubai will also take part in the next round of the tests, which are used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to rank education systems around the world.
“We don’t have any evaluation or assessment programmes in our schools,” Fatma al Marri, the chief executive of DSA, said in a recent interview. International testing would help the agency identify the strengths and weaknesses of Dubai schools, she said.
“If we are talking about school improvement and school development, it means that we are talking about quality. You cannot measure quality unless there is a system to inspect and assess what is happening in schools.”
Forty-six countries participated in the previous TIMMS cycle in 2003, including Bahrain, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, as well as schools under the Palestinian National Authority.
The subsequent report indicated that grade four pupils from Singapore outperformed all their peers in mathematics and science. Morocco and Tunisia lagged far behind the international average.
The Ministry of Education this year announced that the UAE would start participating in international testing such as TIMMS, but did not say when