The UAE is a young nation, but it is also a nation of young people: 51 per cent of nationals are under 19, according to the most recent census. For more than a decade, the Federal Government has made education a top priority. But despite pouring millions of dirhams into the system, the results have been less than dazzling. For young Emiratis, education holds the key to the future - a future in which the economy will continue to diversify away from oil and gas and in which, it is hoped, nationals will play an increasingly important role in the private sector.
Figures for 2005 put the public sector workforce at 76 per cent Emirati, while nationals hold less than one per cent of private sector jobs. Experts blame the disparity on failings in the state education system combined with a lack of incentives to pursue private sector employment. "You have an economy here that's really pushing to go from an oil-dependent economy to a diversified, service-based knowledge economy," says Paul Dyer, a researcher at the Dubai School of Government.
"The UAE's future in that regard really depends on areas like nuclear power, the technology industry, biotech - these are areas that require significant investments in education. "If the UAE wants young Emiratis to play a viable role in that, they are going to have to push to improve education." But revamping the curriculum may be only part of the puzzle, according to Mr Dyer. The large number of well-paid public sector jobs, many of which do not require a university degree, provides little incentive for Emiratis to pursue higher education.
As more young people enter the workforce, their numbers will mean tougher competition for existing public sector jobs. Today 13.8 per cent of Emiratis are registered as unemployed. A recent survey suggests that 30 per cent of young Emiratis outside Dubai are jobless. The UN put unemployment for 15- to 24-year-old males at 6.5 per cent in 2005. "Young people don't get the right signals from the labour force," says Mr Dyer. "You could spend a lot more money on the education system and fix the fundamental problems, but without the right signals coming from the marketplace you're still going to have a problem getting young people to engage and to continue building their skills."
Since the public sector provides ample income opportunities, even students who go to university may have limited educational ambitions. The Government's Emiratisation programme, intended to provide private sector jobs for nationals, is seen as a short-term solution by experts, since it too reduces the incentive for Emirati students to prepare for the private sector's competitive hiring process. "They aim to get public sector jobs, and they understand what they need to do to get there," Mr Dyer says.
Even those Emiratis at university avoid the more difficult subjects in favour of "the kinds of degrees that will get them access to those public sector jobs", he adds. The result is a mismatch between the skills students graduate with and the needs of the marketplace. Most Emirati students do not opt for degrees in engineering or medicine, Mr Dyer says. Not one hard-science subject has been among the five most popular majors at Zayed University for the past four years.
Instead, most prefer to study communications, education, business, IT or art and design. Of 12,525 Emiratis studying at UAE University in 2006, only 1,431 were studying science, 1,203 were in engineering, and 284 were in medical and health science. As of the last census, in 2005, only 10 per cent of Emiratis held a university or post-graduate degree. Part of the problem, Mr Dyer says, is that government schools are not preparing students to be competitive when they get to university.
"We're seeing a pronounced gap between those who are ready for university education and those who are not being prepared by the primary and secondary levels." Measured against their peers around the world, pupils in the state school system are lagging behind in maths and science - and a poor grasp of English delays entry to university for most Emiratis. While the primary language of instruction in state schools is Arabic, federal universities use English. The result is that most school leavers cannot progress directly to university coursework because their English skills are inadequate.
Last year, only eight per cent of Emirati university applicants scored 185 in the Common Educational Proficiency Assessment exam, the grade needed for a chance to avoid remedial English classes, a significant financial burden on universities. At the same time, Zayed University spent about Dh40 million (US$10.8m) on its "academic bridge" programme - approximately 20 per cent of its academic budget.
In the last round of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a test that measures the maths and science skills of 10 and 14-year-old pupils, those from UAE state schools achieved some of the lowest scores. Ministry of Education statistics from 2005 showed that the vast majority of Grade Seven pupils were performing at least one year below grade level in maths, science and English. In maths, only 10 per cent were at their grade level, in science three per cent, and in English writing six per cent.
The education sector in the UAE, both private and public, is currently being overhauled to improve performance. For nearly a decade, the federal Ministry of Education has been grappling with the same set of issues to improve a state school system widely seen to be failing. Millions of dirhams have been spent, consultants have come and gone, and numerous proposals drafted, but the same problems remain: many teachers lack basic qualifications; the national curriculum relies too heavily on rote memorisation and encourages teachers to teach to the test; and large numbers of school buildings are run down and lack basic amenities, such as gymnasiums, canteens, computer labs and high-speed internet connections. "You need to be able to think for yourself, of solutions that maybe you did not learn from a textbook," says Dr Natasha Ridge, another Dubai School of Government researcher and an expert on UAE schools.
"This is what they are not getting because, at the moment, the vast majority of what they learn in school is how to memorise a textbook." In 2001, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, commissioned a study of government schools by a team of international consultants. Their report called for a huge overhaul of the state system and addressed everything from unqualified teachers to crumbling facilities and an out-of-date curriculum.
It concluded with a stark warning: if no action was taken, "the system will continue to be perceived as without direction and failing to prepare students to be competitive in a world economy". By nearly every measure, state schools run by the federal ministry have hardly improved since, and the number of school leavers able to bypass foundation courses before university has barely budged. At the same time, many young Emirati men are leaving high school before completing a diploma, lured by the promise of well-paid public sector jobs.
"By and large many of the problems we first identified are still there in the schools," says Dr Vincent Ferrandino, one of the authors of the 2001 study and the former head of the now-defunct policy and planning department at the Ministry of Education. "I think that you will see some exceptions to that, both in Abu Dhabi and Dubai," he adds, pointing to the progress made by local education councils. "But in many places, what we saw in 2001 has not changed dramatically on the federal level."
Teaching quality, says Dr Ridge, "is the major issue", especially in boys' schools: "I don't think they are recruiting teachers from the top groups, which is a problem." Studies commissioned by the Ministry of Education in 2001 and 2005 found that only 44 per cent of teachers had a degree in education and most new teachers spent only two weeks on average in training before starting work. At state schools, according to the same studies, teachers were paid significantly less than their international counterparts.
Studies suggest that the calibre of teaching is the most important factor in student achievement, and countries that post top scores on international exams tend to have a highly competitive hiring process. In Finland, for example, there are 10 applicants for each teaching vacancy. The UAE has also struggled to attract men into teaching, another area that policy makers are trying to address. Dr Ridge highlights two areas that she believes need urgent reform - curriculum and assessment. "They [the pupils] need to be tested on more than just memorising," she says. Government schools, she adds, are not giving Emirati pupils the critical thinking skills they need to succeed in the highly competitive private sector. "They will be competing against the world for these jobs, you need to be able to back it up with the skills," she says.
Dr Ridge is also concerned that public sector jobs will become scarce in the future as the UAE's baby boomers leave school. "The future is going to be a lot tougher for these young people than it was for their fathers and grandfathers." One attempt to address these problems has been to devolve authority from the Ministry of Education to local education bodies in individual emirates, which have sought their own solutions.
In Abu Dhabi, the Government wants to see that the 67,000 Emiratis who will leave state high schools by 2015 are better prepared for university and the workforce. It has replaced the federal ministry's curriculum with one that relies more on acquiring skills and is placing more emphasis on English. It is also addressing issues such as teacher training and school buildings and lengthening the school day to meet international standards.
But Dr Ferrandino warns that initiatives by individual emirates risks leaving others lagging behind. "My concern is for the emirates that are not as actively engaged in the reform efforts, the poorer emirates, and so it becomes very uneven and that is something they will have to take on in the future." In the end, says Mr Dyer, only major reforms to the state education system can generate the knowledge base and the workforce required to bring the future ambitions of the UAE to fruition.
"To move forward in a sustainable way, where Emiratis are a dynamic part of their own economy, you have to bridge the gap in skills development for Emiratis," he says. "As the country continues to make these big investments in nuclear power and in tourism, looking at moving away from a dependence on oil, you are either going to have to import those skills, or you're going to have to build them at home."
@Email:klewis@thenational.ae
