Poor schools fail 20,000 children

ABU DHABI // More than 20,000 children in Abu Dhabi are being let down by their school, education inspectors say.

Of the 41 private schools inspected by Abu Dhabi Education Council so far this academic year, 14 were rated “weak” and five “very weak”. Of those 19, 14 have failed to improve their rating in the past three inspections. The 19 schools have 20,712 pupils.

Experts say they are failing to invest in quality teachers, and suffer high staff turnover. The schools say they are caught in a vicious cycle: they cannot invest without increasing fees, and they are not allowed to increase fees until they raise standards.

“To provide the resources and to hire good teachers, we need to raise the fees,” said Shazia Nazir, vice principal of the Pakistani-curriculum Al Ettehad Private School in Al Ain, which was rated “very weak” and was threatened with closure last year if it failed to improve.

“The fees are the only source of income for the school. Every time we request it, but it’s not approved.”

Annual fees at the school have been frozen at between Dh1,920 and Dh2,700 since 2013, when it was first inspected and rated unsatisfactory. Teachers’ salaries range from about Dh2,000 to about Dh4,000 a month and the staff turnover rate is 28 per cent.

“I want to pay more, I want to pay a healthy, good amount to the teachers so that they will work with us honestly and they will remain with us,” said Mrs Nazir.

“Because of the low fee structures, we are facing some problems. We don’t have enough money to spend on resources. So it’s a serious problem.”

David Allison, head of the education consultants SSAT Middle East, said high staff turnover was a challenge for low-performing schools.

“We support a school for one year with 100 teachers and we work with those teachers, but if 50 per cent of those teachers change the following year, to some extent you’re back to square one,” Mr Allison said.

“It’s not just the teacher turnover rate, it’s the principal turnover rate as well.”

The 2015-2016 school inspection reports list turnover rates for the first time. Of the 41 schools inspected in the first term from September to December, 21 had a turnover rate of 20 per cent or higher.

Emirates Future International Academy, an Indian-curriculum school for 2,680 pupils, and United School of Baniyas, an American school for 159 pupils, had the highest reported turnover rate at 50 per cent. Both are rated unsatisfactory.

Schools that do not invest in their staff are hurt the most, Mr Allison said. “They’re not providing professional development, they’re not providing financial support, maybe they’re not paying their teachers enough and therefore there is a high turnover and, to some extent, they are not encouraging good teachers to come and work at these schools.

“The other big issue is the licensing of teachers. Most of the teachers in the schools are not licensed teachers; they are graduates, but not licensed.”

Private schools in Abu Dhabi are inspected about once every two years. This academic year was the first time they were examined under new performance standards from the Ministry of Education’s school inspection framework, which unified the metrics and grading system used to evaluate all schools.

Under the new framework, schools are judged on a six-level scale: outstanding, very good, good, acceptable, weak and very weak. Adec has adjusted the scale to group schools by bands. Schools that fall in Band A are outstanding, very good and good; Band B is for acceptable schools; and Band C covers weak and very weak schools.

Adec said 112 private schools will be inspected this academic year, including 44 that were audited in term two, between January and March, and 27 that are undergoing inspections.

In all, there are 186 private schools providing education to about 236,000 pupils across the emirate.

Reports for schools inspected in the second and third terms will be published in July-August, Adec said.

Vidhya Kini, the mother of two private school pupils, said parents relied on the reports for critical information.

“As a parent, I think all of us are concerned about the safety standards in the school, the hygiene of the school, the way they conduct the education system,” said Mrs Kini, whose children attend an Indian-curriculum school. “It’s important for us to know how the school is doing.”

___________________________________________

Band A

Outstanding

Al Muna Primary School

*Al Bateen Secondary/Al Mushrif Primary School

Band A

Very Good

Al Yasmina School

Al Ain International School

Gems American Academy

Pearl Primary School

The British International School Abu Dhabi

Band A

Good

The Cambridge High School

Liwa International Private School

Al Rabeeh School

Band B

Acceptable

Abu Dhabi Indian School

Al Bahya School

Al Hamadanya Grand Private School

Al Ittihad National Private School

Al Najah Private School

Ashbal Al Quds Private Secondary School

Beit Al Maqdes International Private School

Emirates Falcon International School

Emirates National Private School

Al Manaseer

International Community School

International Jubilee Private School

Islamia English School

Band C

Weak

Ain Al Khaleej Private School

Al Awa’il Private School Al Ain

Al Iman Private School

Al Ain English Speaking School

Al Ain Iranian Private School

Baraaim Al Ain Private School

Darul Huda Islamic School

Emirates Future International Academy

Emirates National Private School, Al Nahayan

Future International School

Indian School, Al Ain

International Private School

Scientific Distinction Private School

Universal Private School

Band C

Very Weak

Al Ettehad Private School

Al Maali International Private School

Pakistani Islamic Private School

Palestine Private Academy

United School of Baniyas

* This story has been amended since it was first published to reflect that Adec inspected Al Bateen Secondary and Al Mushrif Primary schools as one school with one grade.