ABU DHABI // A new curriculum cutting from 13 to a maximum of seven the number of compulsory subjects in the last three years of school is to be tested in 2012. The revamped curriculum, which will go on trial in selected secondary schools in Abu Dhabi next September, will also offer a vocational stream for non-academically inclined pupils in Grades 10, 11 and 12.
The existing curriculum had to be restructured to meet challenges, Dr Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, director general of Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), said yesterday.
"We need to update the information we offer to pupils and reduce the burden of learning so many subjects with no time for any extra-curricular activities," he said.
The move will end the old two-stream approach that divided subject choice into arts and science paths. Dr Al Khaili compared the new system to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and International Baccalaureate (IB) followed by international schools.
The proposed changes come after a thorough review of Adec's secondary-school system by Parthenon, an education advisory group. It found the system was not meeting the goals of preparing pupils for higher education or relevant careers.
Parthenon found that non-instructional activities were conducted for no more than a quarter of the school year and exposure to life skills was offered in only one class a week.
Pupils do not take music classes after Grade 6 or art classes after Grade 9.
They said maths was not linked to real-life situations, and science did not provide a global-view, while Arabic and English courses did not provide the vocabulary needed for college-level reading.
About 95 per cent of pupils passing out of high school still need remedial programmes before they can start degree programmes at university. Adec also found parent satisfaction with high school education very low.
Dr Al Khaili said both the coursework and time allocated to each subject will be altered and more emphasis would be placed on liberal arts and personality-building courses.
The New School Model, rolled out in 2010, was the start of education reform in the capital's government schools aimed at addressing these and other problems. It was introduced in the lower grades last year to introduce pupils to bilingual, practical-based education. The system will be applied to all Grades by 2015.
But officials say a rapid improvement programme is needed to address the performance of 67,000 pupils expected to graduate before then.
Dr Rafic Makki, director of Planning and Strategic Affairs at Adec, said the aim of the Cycle 3 changes was to give pupils the flexibility to choose courses according to their interest and skills.
"We are looking at a less-is-more approach," he said. "We will create more pathways with academic and vocational choices. There will be fewer subjects to choose but more in-depth coverage of material."
Dr Makki said there will also be a greater emphasis on career guidance so pupils can tap into their interests and pick subjects that are relevant to their future careers.
The restructuring programme is being developed in collaboration with other education authorities, including the Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Ministry and Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, said a change in high schools would help to get rid of the foundation courses, a key objective of the 2020 education strategy.
"It is costing our economy to continue with this programme. We want students to be able to successfully join degree programmes at university."
Dr Makki also bemoaned the fact that Emirati pupils were heading to university without the critical, creative and problem-solving skills they needed. He said it extended their time in tertiary training to up to eight years because they had to take foundation courses.
Prof Rory Hume, the provost of UAE University, said the current Cycle 3 model was not meeting needs.
"Students are not prepared for tertiary education in either Arabic or the English language," he said. "There must be much more focus at schools on creative, group and research work and less on memorisation."
Full details of the restructuring, including how many schools it will be tested in and for how long, will be announced next year.
