Need teachers? Then train them

With a shortage of teachers looming, radical solutions will be needed to staff classrooms

Recruiting thousands of new teachers will require some radical approaches. Delores Johnson / The National

Thousands of teachers who have not previously worked in this country have reported for duty in Abu Dhabi schools this week to prepare for the unique local working conditions. This welcome opportunity for professional development reflects a much bigger challenge that will face the education sector in coming years. As The National reported last week, Abu Dhabi Education Council will open 10 new public schools this academic year, capable of accommodating 15,000 Emirati students, as part of a long-term plan to create 100 new schools in the emirate.

However this Dh1 billion investment in bricks and mortar will not be repaid unless the new classrooms are staffed with skilled and motivated teachers who have the ability to relate to our culture and to get the best from their students. In the context of a global shortage of teachers, this poses a fundamental challenge to meeting our educational goals and will require some radical solutions.

One of these is to consider whether schools ought to take a greater role in training teachers rather than simply recruiting them. The government sector has been making major strides on this front, with the 185 Emirati public school teachers being hired for the coming academic year making nationals the majority at 52 per cent of teaching staff, compared to 47 per cent last year.

For the large private education sector, where tuition fees are regulated and linked to academic performance, this is a more difficult task and especially for schools catering to lower income brackets. But with several major private school groups, such as Gems and Aldar, there are the economies of scale that could enable them to train teachers who could repay that investment by being bonded to them for a specified time. The benefit of these new teachers being able to relate to the unique cultural considerations here is obvious, while the ability to learn on the job with a lot of classroom time will create a new cadre of highly capable educators.

Training teachers will not provide the entire answer to the looming recruitment challenge, but it is the kind of alternative thinking that will form part of the solution and ensure the new generation of students gets the best possible start.