Emiratis turning to private schools

A growing number of UAE nationals are sending their children to private schools, despite official efforts to improve standards.

Sanaa Zayed, 5, a daughter of Eman Amalry, is among the Emirati children whose parents are concerned about state school standards.

ABU DHABI // As UAE citizens, Salama Alamry and her sister Eman can send their children to school for free. Instead, both pay tens of thousands of dirhams a year for private schooling, because they believe state schools offer inferior education and facilities.

"We're talking about two kids; it's more than Dh30,000 per year," Salama said. But it is worth it, she said, because she believes a private education will better prepare her children for university. Even as the Ministry of Education and local authorities in Abu Dhabi and Dubai attempt to reform the state school system, many Emiratis are choosing private schools that offer superior facilities, instruction in English and better test results.

In Dubai, more than half of Emirati children attend private schools. The number has grown by about seven per cent a year over the past five years. The situation is different in Abu Dhabi, which has more school-aged Emiratis. There, only 29 per cent of the 128,988 Emirati students are at private schools. Education authorities are trying to address achievement gaps between state and private schools but say that such shifts take time. Too much time, many parents would add.

"You feel that there is no stability in what they are doing," Salama said. "One year they will implement one thing, the next year they will change it and implement another thing. I don't want my kids to go through all these experiments." Private schools did a better job of preparing students for university, she added, but her choice of the American International School and the Canadian International School was about more than just the curriculum. She also wanted her children to be bilingual and to mix with other nationalities.

Hamda al Mehariri, another Emirati mother, whose children attend the International School of Choueifat, made a similar argument. "Most families send their kids to private schools; the good families do," she said. "The education there is stronger, and the environment is better." The Government has listed education reform as one of its top priorities for the past 10 years, and poured tens of millions of dirhams into the Ministry of Education.

Yet, when Dubai participated in international benchmarking exams for the first time last year, pupils in state schools posted some of the lowest scores in the world. Results from the recent Trends in Mathematics and Science Study found that 10-year-olds at UAE state schools scored roughly 14 percentage points lower in maths, and 15 points lower in science, than their privately educated peers. Thirteen-year-olds from state schools fared even worse, lagging 27 points behind their private school peers in maths and 18 points in science.

For the past decade, the Ministry of Education has been trying to address issues such as unqualified teachers, outdated teaching methods and a curriculum that relies too heavily on rote memorisation. The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) and Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHOA) have moved to improve their state schools. Those in the other emirates are run directly by the ministry.

And for the past three years, Adec has run a public-private partnership (PPP) programme, hiring private firms to improve state schools. "It is a priority for us to minimise the variations in quality," said Dr Mugheer al Khaili, the director general of Adec. "Adec's recent initiatives, such as a new PPP model, longer school days, and increased emphasis on English and problem solving within public schools have been put in place to make sure that all schools adhere to an accepted standard."

Last year, the KHDA introduced inspections and a support unit to help schools address their weaknesses. One of Adec's central concerns is poor English results - a barrier that kept 87 per cent of Emirati students from directly entering universities last year. While state schools teach almost exclusively in Arabic, federal universities teach in English, which means that most students coming from state schools spend at least a year in remedial English classes before starting their main course.

To address this, from next month secondary schools in the capital will run extra English lessons, in a longer school day. Dr Brian Gilroy, the assistant provost at Zayed University, said roughly 83 per cent of students entering Zayed last year went into the foundation programme, which ate up a "significant portion" of the university's budget. Dr Gilroy said the majority of students from private schools did not need to take remedial classes: "It's very rare to have a private-educated student in a lower level of the foundation programme."

Nezar Andary, an assistant professor of humanities at Zayed University, added: "Private school girls have an advantage. But after a year or two, that difference is really minimised. There is a gap but that gap is not about capabilities." Recalling her own time as a student at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), Eman said even the best students from state schools had to take a foundation year. "It was very hard; they didn't even bring one or two words in English," she said.

"My elder sisters and brothers were in public schools," Eman added, explaining that the transition to university was difficult for them. "My father saw this problem. When we entered school he just put us in private schools to prevent this problem from happening." Mrs al Mehariri herself was educated in a state school and had to take a foundation year at the HCT. "When I was little only the boys went to private schools," she said.

"The girls, all of us, we were sent to public schools, because we knew then that we weren't going to work. Even if we continued our higher education we were going to get married and stay at home." Mrs al Mehariri said she got a good education in the state system, but struggled with English when she started university. Mariam, who asked that her real name not be used, also found the transition from her state secondary school to the HCT challenging.

"It was very difficult for me because I didn't know how to speak English," she said. "I had to work very hard." She spent two years in remedial language classes before she started her degree. Mariam chose Emirates National over other private schools for two reasons: the campus was close to home and she believes instruction in Arabic and Islamic studies is stronger there than the other international schools she looked at.

"They care about Arabic and Islamic studies as much as maths and science," she said. A recent KHDA report found that Arabic language instruction in most private schools was below standard. "I don't want them to lose their Arabic," Eman said, adding that she tutors her children at home and will send them to classes outside of school when they get older. "Although they have Arabic in school it is only one hour in the day."

The balance may be hard to strike: the move to teach more subjects in English in state schools has come under fire from members of the Federal National Council, who have argued that increased lesson time in English will be at the expense of Arabic. But for parents such as Salama and Eman, it is not an issue on which to compromise. "I want them to be perfect in English and Arabic," Eman said. [e-mail]