The first unified school inspection system, which will come into effect this month, is a welcome initiative that should improve the overall standards of education. The 13-page School Inspection Framework will rate the performance of schools based on various criteria, including leadership and management, curriculum, student achievement, development and innovation, teaching methods, and protection, care and guidance for pupils.
Having a standard system across the emirates will undoubtedly benefit schools and students alike. Parents will be able to make more informed decisions about schooling for their children; and families who move between emirates will find it easier to match a new school to their children’s requirements. It will benefit those school owners who operate in more than one emirate, as all their businesses will be evaluated according to the same criteria. The new framework will also put all schools on the same track in terms of the drive towards encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship among young people.
However, this is a big step and it will be extremely challenging, in part due to the uniqueness of the UAE’s education landscape. More than 15 different national curriculums operate here, making it difficult to establish a level playing field. Standards that may be important for British-curriculum schools, for example, will differ from those in schools aimed at Indian, American or Australian pupils. It will also be difficult to find standards of evaluation that apply across all seven emirates, given that the different education authorities have been using their own approaches for many decades. It will be important for the inspectors to take account of these factors to avoid confusion and to best serve the families who will be making use of the data they generate.
Educators have said that they are not clear as to which model will be followed – the Abu Dhabi system of inspecting every two years or the annual cycle used in Dubai. The former would seem to be the better system, especially in the initial stages, because it will allow schools that get a poor report card more time to assess and improve their standards.
The new framework should ensure consistency across institutions and the emirates, and strengthen the standards in education, which has been identified as one of the key planks of the national vision.
