DUBAI// Thousands of Indian grade 10 pupils across the UAE received the results of their Central Board of Secondary Education exams yesterday.
Most schools were upbeat, saying students who sat the CBSE tests in March had performed well under the different systems introduced by the Delhi-based board in the past few years.
To ease pressure on students and focus on healthy competition, the board moved towards continuous assessment and grading instead of a complete score-based system.
"It is nothing exciting like earlier times," said Satish Menon, whose son Sanjay attends the Indian High School and scored a cumulative grade-point average (CGPA) of 9 and above.
"The new system is much healthier. Competition among kids earlier used to border on enmity and extended to parents, too. Now, the pressure has been taken off."
Students can opt to take exclusively internal exams, where schools set and correct the papers, instead of the conventional Delhi-marked exams.
Sanjay opted for the old system, where the final papers are set and corrected by the Delhi board.
A newer option is the CBSE-International (CBSE-i), introduced three years ago, under which pupils are graded on academics, performing arts, visual arts, physical education and attitudes. Emphasis is on core areas such as life skills, perspectives and research.
The final mark of all exams includes 70 per cent of pupils grades earned throughout the year.
Five schools in the UAE opted for the CBSE-i while many offer the new system along with the regular board.
The Millennium School, part of the Gems group, has fully adopted the CBSE-i. Of its 177 students who took the exam, 55 got a perfect CGPA of 10. All its students passed.
"It is a new approach to education that is investigative and collaborative," said the principal, Michael Guzder. "It is an attempt to reform education. We hope more schools will join this system."
About 37 pupils from the Indian High School took the CBSE-i and 19 of them achieved a CGPA of 10.
But an overwhelming majority - 629 pupils - took the Delhi-marked papers and 89 of them scored full grade points.
At the Model School Abu Dhabi, 73 students took the external exams, with 18 securing a CGPA of 10 in all five papers.
About 264 students from the New Indian Model School in Dubai sat the external exams and nine secured full grade points. All the students passed in the exams.
Of 130 students of the New Indian Model School in Sharjah, 12 pupils scored a perfect 10.
Out of 128 students from Delhi Private School in Dubai, 117 sat the external board exam, while the remainder took the internal exams. Fifteen achieved a CGPA of 10.
"The main reason we appeared for the external exam was that it is a preparatory for the most important exam in the 12th Grade," said Mudit Gupta, 16, the school's vice headboy and one of the high scorers. "Also, since we don't know our marks, it does reduce the pressure."
The sentiment was echoed by Shradha Ganapathy, 15, the school's vice headgirl.
"Marks do increase pressure and can create unhealthy competition," she said. "Students can put in the same effort but because of the pressure of the examination, you may make mistakes. The system of grades is good because it alleviates the burden."
At Al Noor Indian Islamic School in Abu Dhabi, 36 took the external exams and two attained the highest CGPA score.
"Since ours is a secondary school, we advise students to take the external exam," said Mohamed Haris, the principal.
Shaheen Shafiq, the mother of Jamshiya Sulthana, 15, one of the school's high achievers, said her daughter worked hard right through the school year.
"She has already started out in Grade 11 and opted for bio-maths," Mrs Shafiq said.
pkannan@thenational.ae
rtalwar@thenational.ae
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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
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