Dubai is leading the way in education

Children are the future. And, here in the year 2016, I'm not the only one who feels that way. When speaking at the beginning of the year about the benefits of 2016 being UAE's "Year of reading", His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, noted that "Scientists, thinkers, researchers, and innovators do not descend from the sky. Instead, their base is built from the earth. And the strongest base from which a construction is raised is love for reading and curiosity for knowledge".
His Highness is correct, of course. But it was the following statement that best demonstrated his concerns and motivations for implementing educational change in 2016: "Current generations are suffering from a reading crisis and we do not compliment ourselves when it comes to developing these generations, and the government is concerned in graduating an educated reading generation"
Change is always a difficult task. Particularly change that involves so many institutions and stakeholders. It's all made more difficult when many countries have been viewing education as being a fiscal exercise in profit and loss. It is a trend that has been creeping into many education systems around the world over the last couple of decades. A trend that saw a shift toward students being treated primarily as a commodity for a school's business plan, with education coming second.
A full commodification of an education system just isn't sustainable, particularly if the focus is taken away from a country's most valuable of assets - its next generations. The good news is that the UAE and Australia appear to be doing a lot in recognising that education of our nation's children is fundamental to a future of stability, innovation and growth - not just locally, but at a global level.
However, while recognition that things can always be better is great in theory, there is a fundamental difference between Australia and the UAE when it comes to education reform. Put simply, despite ongoing studies and report submissions like 2011's Gonski Report, Australian political parties pass the subject of education around like a political hot potato.
To be fair, Australia does have the benefit of having a mature and globally respected education system. Depending on which report you have thrust at you, Aussie education will always feature in the top 15 countries of the world. But it's not enough to just be good at something, particularly in a world where systems, technologies, and demographics change so quickly. To be good is not as important as continuing to improve - something Australia will only be able to address once politics stop getting in the way.
Meanwhile in Dubai, and on advice from His Highness Shaikh Mohammed, Dubai's Ministry of Education just got on with the reforming. Amongst other things on the reform menu, there has been an adjustment of the syllabus in Dubai schools that has leant toward education goals that are in line with international standards.
However, you can't have a raft of new subjects without textbooks to go with them, so students in Dubai began the year with new books and even more new teachers to drive significant change in education standards. In short, 2016 was a good year to return to school in Dubai and the Northern Emirates.
Speaking as an Australian, the best part is that all of this change was made without any great fanfare or political hype. Instead, in Dubai, there was just the recognition that tomorrow's leaders need to be educated today, and it is the foundations built in primary and secondary education that matter so much to a country's young people, and it's future. Many countries that have a deeply established education system would do well to look to Dubai for how education reform can be done.
The writer is a professor and chairman, Gulf Australia Corporation.