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7 years of inspection pays off, Dubai schools improve

Latest report by KHDA shows 95% Dubai’s private school students are receiving outstanding, good or acceptable education

Private schools in Dubai have significantly improved their standards in the past seven years since the Knowledge and Human Development Authority began its inspection programme, the authority said in its latest Dubai Schools Inspection Report.

The report shows that 95 per cent of Dubai’s private school students are receiving an education that is outstanding, good or acceptable, compared to 86 per cent in 2008.

This year, 143 schools were inspected. Of these, 14 were rated Outstanding; 59 were rated as Good; 61 were Acceptable and nine were considered Unsatisfactory.

Noting that the future is bright, KHDA said: “Seven years since the DSIB  (Dubai School Inspection Bureau) started annual inspections of schools, we are pausing to look back, reflect on our journey and the improvements made by our schools, and strengthen our commitment to further improving the quality of private education in Dubai.”

KHDA said the findings of DSIB indicate that 51 per cent of schools are now providing an outstanding or good education, compared to 35 per cent in 2008.

 As many as 52 of the schools that were inspected this year (36 per cent) have improved their overall rating while 15 schools (10 per cent) declined in their overall rating since their first year of inspection. Over five years, nine schools with unsatisfactory rating closed down, the authority said.

For the first time this year, inspection reports included a section on the overall effectiveness of the schools’ special educational needs provision. The key findings report brings together analysed findings on a number of aspects of this provision, including students’ progress in learning, partnerships with parents, curriculum modification and support for students.

Of Dubai’s private school student population of 255,208, 18% are enrolled in early years education. The report shows that there has been steady improvement in this sector over the past seven years. “This is particularly apparent in health and safety, where 90 per cent of schools are now considered to have good or outstanding health and safety provision, compared with 62 per cent in 2008.”

The report outlines the correlation between good leadership and quality education, which has been well-documented in recent years.

Good leadership

This year, DSIB found that good or better leadership is now exercised at 60 per cent of all schools, an increase of 14 per cent compared to 2008. Only 2 per cent of schools were found to have unsatisfactory leadership, compared to 16 per cent in 2008.

The report also indicates that good or outstanding schools have adopted a number of strategies to improve provision in the early years. These include the recruitment of effective phase leaders, adoption of a high-quality, internationally recognised curriculum and the provision of a range of professional development opportunities for teachers.

“We’ve witnessed significant improvements over the past seven years,” said Jameela Al Muhairi, Chief of DSIB.

“We’ve seen developments across all areas of education and huge efforts from schools, parents, teachers and other stakeholders to improve the quality of education in our schools. Our recommendations are designed to help schools continue this journey of improvement and to carry on working to provide accessible, high quality private education in Dubai.”

Only a third of US curriculum schools’ diplomas are recognised

Too many students in US curriculum schools in Dubai are leaving private schools unprepared for further learning or the world of work, according to the KHDA annual school inspection report.

Only about one third of Dubai’s US curriculum schools currently provide their graduating students with diplomas that are recognised in the United States, the authority said, terming the lack of recognition as a “concern.”

Furthermore, many teachers lack the knowledge and skills necessary to deliver a standards-based curriculum and assess their students’ learning using these standards, KHDA observed in a section of its report that gave special focus to American schools this time. It said these schools are also not benchmarking their internal assessments to make them more accurate.

“The consequence of these two factors is that many teachers, students and parents do not have sufficiently accurate knowledge of students’ academic progress,” the authority said.

There are currently 31 DSIB-inspected private schools offering US curriculum in Dubai. Only 32 per cent of these schools were judged as providing a good or better quality of education overall in 2014-2015. GEMS Dubai American Academy is the only US/IB curriculum school that achieved an outstanding ranking.

KHDA has called on the American schools to acquire accredited status as soon as possible, so that all graduating students will have a diploma recognised in the United States and internationally.

They were asked to provide teachers with professional development opportunities that will enable them to skillfully deliver a standards-based US curriculum and assess their students’ learning using those standards.

It also said the schools should test students’ knowledge and skills using external assessments to evaluate their attainment and progress at the end of each phase of schooling.

Learning Arabic as first language not up to mark

The progress that Emirati and Arab students are making in learning Arabic as a first language in Dubai’s private schools remains alarmingly low owing to poor quality of teaching, assessment, and curriculum design and modification, according to the KHDA.

Only about a quarter of the teachers have a recognised qualification in teaching, said the KHDA’s annual school inspection report.

While 26 per cent of the teachers of Arabic as a first language do not have a university degree in the subject content (Arabic language and/or literature), eight per cent of teachers have qualifications lower than university level.

All Dubai private schools with Emirati and Arab students now offer Arabic as a first language to their students. KHDA noted that there has been a significant improvement in schools’ compliance with the Ministry of Education requirements regarding the amount of time and resources that should be allocated to Arabic as a first language. The quality of provision, however, remains a great concern, it said.

Apart from a drop in unsatisfactory ranking, there has not been any significant improvement in students’ attainment in Arabic as a first language since the first cycle of inspections in 2008. Students’ listening and responding skills remain stronger than their ability to handle unfamiliar reading texts and to write at length. The latter two skills remain key areas for improvement in most schools, it said.

“The quality of teaching in Arabic as a first language in the majority of schools is only acceptable. The weakest teaching is in the higher grades. The quality of lesson planning is a major area for development. Most teachers use only a narrow range of teaching strategies; these often fail to engage students or address their linguistic development needs.”

The curriculum for learning Arabic as a first language also remains of acceptable quality in most private schools in Dubai.

KHDA said it is crucial that they receive good quality provision of Arabic as a first language, not only to preserve their identity, self-esteem, heritage and culture but also to allow them to develop intellectually and academically.

The authority has called on schools with young Emirati and Arab children to attract and retain teachers who have had appropriate teacher training and qualifications in the Arabic language.

sajila@khaleejtimes.com