Schools fall short of world standards

An independent report says Dubai's schools need immediate changes if they are to compete internationally.

A student at work in a UAE school. A visiting researcher has reported that pupils do not spend enough time in the classroom.

Dubai's schools need immediate changes if they are to compete internationally, an independent report that will be sent to the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders says. The Dubai School of Government report paints an especially grim picture of state schools, based on the results of Dubai's recent participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) exams.

Dubai state schools performed significantly worse than the emirate's private schools, which also fell short of top international standards. The report makes several recommendations, including extending the school year, licensing teachers and modernising teaching methods. It will be presented to ministry officials in the coming weeks and has been seen by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which oversees Dubai's schools.

Improving the schools will require immediate and comprehensive action by the ministry, said the report's author, Mike Helal, a visiting researcher at the Dubai School of Government. "A piecemeal approach to each of these areas is not going to succeed in any efficient education reform," Mr Helal said, adding that lengthening the school day and year in state schools should be the ministry's priority.

The TIMSS exam, which assesses the maths and science skills of 10- and 14-year-old pupils, was conducted in more than 50 countries. The tests were scored on a scale from zero to 1,000, with 500 representing the average. TIMSS classifies pupils in four achievement levels: advanced, high, intermediate and low. At the Grade 4 level in maths, only two per cent of Dubai pupils performed at the advanced level. In contrast, 41 per cent of pupils in Singapore and 40 per cent in Hong Kong reached that level. "There is a substantial gap" between Dubai and comparable cities, Mr Helal said.

"After all, Dubai has a very similar economy to the likes of Hong Kong and Singapore." Grade 4 pupils in Dubai scored 444 in maths, and 416 in science. Pupils in Grade 8 fared slightly better with scores of 461 in maths and 489 in science - in the vicinity of countries such as Georgia, Romania and Armenia. Fatma al Marri, the CEO of the KHDA's Dubai Schools Agency, said the paper represented an "exciting first step" in gauging the significance of the TIMSS results for Dubai. Ms al Marri said she hoped the report would lead to more co-operation between public and private schools in Dubai.

Education reform is a top priority for the Government at every level. Recent policy documents published by Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the UAE governments stress the importance of education. It is estimated that 250,000 people will enter the UAE workforce by 2020, and the Government's education agenda is intended to prepare them for the rising demands of the business world. Dubai pupils posted higher scores than those in other MENA and GCC countries, including Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. But most pupils participating in those countries came from state schools, Mr Helal said. In Dubai, 85 per cent of schools are private, and almost 70 per cent of the pupils who sat the exam were at private schools.

"If a detailed breakdown were to be released it would be revealed that [Dubai] public schools are not in fact leading the region," Mr Helal said. "The public schools currently have a level of achievement much lower than the private sector." The poor performance of the state school system has led many Emirati parents to place their children in private schools. In Dubai, 44 per cent of Emirati pupils are not in the state school system. Dubai participated in the TIMSS scheme for the first time this year. "As a starting point, this is a very mature step that Dubai has taken," Mr Helal said. But overall, he said, "the target needs to be much higher" than the performance of other GCC nations. Mr Helal referred to the fact that 28 per cent of Grade 4 pupils did not meet the "low benchmark" set by the testing body as cause for serious concern. Among all participating countries, only seven per cent of pupils failed to do so. As well as extending classroom hours, Mr Helal has recommended that teacher certification be introduced and teacher training be expanded, and that teachers adopt methods of instruction to replace the "antiquated" emphasis on learning by rote. The ministry already is shifting methods of instruction away from rote and has adopted the Abu Dhabi Education Council's standards-driven curriculum. A source at the ministry said recommendations to extend the school year and certify teachers have been presented in the past few months but no action has been taken. The Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, and the ministry's director general, Rashid al Nuaimi, did not respond to requests for comment. [e-mail]