DUBAI - The UAE has stressed the importance of educational equality and recalled that it allocated 23 per cent of last year’s Dh42.2-billion budget to schools in its report on human rights.
The report says Emiratis enjoy free public education up to the university, as the government is keen to increase the literacy rate in the country. The total number of schools, private and public, touched nearly 1,260 in 2007-08. The academic year also saw the implementation of the Madares Al Ghad or the ‘Schools of Tomorrow’ programme, where 50 public schools were chosen to create an efficient prototype of education that could be replicated in all government schools.
These schools follow a separate curriculum and aim to bring in school reforms.
Nearly 650,000 students study in schools in the UAE. School enrolment touched 98 per cent among boys and 95 per cent among girls. The illiteracy rate has also fallen below five per cent.
The UAE also has the distinction of providing different curricula including American, British and Asian, to cater to the large expatriate population in the country.
Over 46,500 students study in different colleges of higher education as of 2007-08. The UAE also supports Emirati students who want to study abroad by offering full scholarships in higher education.
Dubai’s International Academic City and Knowledge Village, the educational free zones, have attracted some of the best international universities, thereby effectively reversing the brain drain and even attracting international students to the country’s cosmopolitan, financial hub, the report says.