Pupils improve pass rate after reforms

Students and teachers say tests were easier this year, but Minister of Education says new teaching methods are bearing fruit.

Hassan Ali al Khoori, who scored 84 per cent, says he found the exams easier this year.

ABU DHABI // A large increase in the number of pupils who passed this year's Ministry of Education examinations is being attributed by school officials and students to easier tests.

However, others, including Humaid al Qattami, the Minister of Education, say the improvement is the result of new teaching methods and a move away from rote memorisation to a more modern system. The results for this year's common Ministry of Education Grade 12 exams were released this week and they included pupils at public schools as well as private schools who follow the MoE curriculum. The pass rate for public school pupils in the science track was almost 92 per cent, up from 83.2 per cent last year. Several students on the science track scored an average of 99.9 per cent.

Pupils in the literary track saw a slight improvement, with a pass rate of 77.7 per cent, compared with 74.3 per cent last year. But the number of pupils in Grade 12 who chose the science track was less than half that of pupils in the literary track. Mr al Qattami praised the results, saying the reforms were working. "They prepare the student for a useful and productive life, and grow the ability to continue learning and be completely open and deal with the issues of the modern world and its technologies, without burdening him with traditional, useless methods," he said.

Teachers, parents and pupils complained last year that the ministry's exams were too difficult and geared toward the top tier of pupils. "To be honest, the exams [this year] were at the level of the average student," said Mohammed al Hantoubi, the principal of Al Dahma' Model School. "Paying attention to this point in exams helped increase the percentage of students who passed." He called the easing of the examinations a "positive change".

"Last year it seemed like a sort of challenge for students - the questions were for the high-performing students, who are a small percentage. If you make them all for the best students you will get low results," he said. "Last year, some of the students were wronged." Parents and pupils seemed happy with the exams, a radical difference from last year, he said. Mr al Hantoubi added that improved mock exams had better prepared pupils for their finals.

One pupil from Ras al Khaimah said the science exams were very similar to the mock exams, with variations on only a few questions. Yousef al Shehhi, the principal of a different school in RAK, Al Rams Secondary School, added that a new style of teaching science was also taking hold in schools. Lecturing is being abandoned in favour of a more hands-off role for teachers. Hassan Ali al Khoori, 18, decided to repeat Grade 12 this year to score better than his 66.6 per cent average last year. On the 2010 exams, his average was just over 84 per cent.

"I can say this year was easier than last year," Hasan said. "Last year was more complicated and hard. This year the exams were more simplified and were at the level of the average student." While most of his exams were relatively easy, physics and biology proved the simplest of the lot. Natasha Ridge, a research fellow at the Dubai School of Government, warned against interpreting the results until more comparative data was available. "I think we would need to be cautious about these results and we would need to compare them to the results from the TIMMS study in order to get the real sense of student achievement," Dr Ridge said.

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data published by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), Dubai's school regulator, found pupils in the emirate performing well below international averages. Public school students scored 100 points below their peers in Dubai private schools in Grade 8 maths, and 40 points behind private-school pupils at the Grade 4 level.

Dubai schools as a whole performed far below international averages. The MoE intends to take part in the next round of TIMSS. @Email:[e-mail]

91.9% Science track passing rate 77.7% Literary track passing rate 21,875 Number of Grade 12 literary track students 10,048 Number of Grade 12 science track students 99.9% Highest overall average