Good conduct certificate must for teachers in UAE

All teachers in the UAE will need to obtain a good conduct certificate from the police department of the country they last taught at in order to get their licence approved. The requirement also applies to those currently teaching in the UAE.
 
A UAE teacher's licence is mandatory to teach in the country and a teaching permit may also be required, depending on each emirate. In Dubai, teachers have to get a permit from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) after they receive their teaching licence, which is issued by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The licence and permit will have to be renewed every three years. However, a teacher can switch jobs within the emirate using the same permit.
 
Naji Almahdi, chief of qualifications (Dubai) at the ministry's National Qualifications Authority, said the conduct certificate is required to "ensure the safety of all students". "This is a normal requirement everywhere around the world. You have to know who is coming to work for you - does he or she have a criminal background?" Almahdi said.
 
He was speaking on the sidelines of his presentation on day two of the International and Private Schools Education Forum (IPSEF) on Saturday.
 
"The teacher will be required to get a good conduct certificate from the country they were teaching at last ... For example, if it is an Indian teacher and he taught at Singapore last, he needs to get a clearance certificate from the authorities in Singapore," Almahdi said. "This is to keep our children safe."
 
Earlier this year, a Dubai teacher was arrested in Florida for allegedly attempting to solicit sex with a seven-year-old.
 
The UAE has made it mandatory for all educators to obtain a teaching licence. In Dubai, all educators need to acquire a teacher or educational leadership permit by 2021.
 
Almahdi said there are now more than 20,000 teachers in Dubai, but "55 per cent of them don't have proper training". Only 10 per cent of these teachers have some kind of international teaching licence, he added.
 
Explaining the process to get the permit in Dubai, the official said: "There are six main supporting elements that need to be taken into consideration for you to get your teacher's permit: Subject knowledge, teaching certification, language proficiency, MoE teaching licence, professional development and portfolio."
 
When it comes to the qualifications provided by the applicant, Almahdi said the MoE will be verifying them. He said a degree may be considered "as just a diploma in some countries" or vice versa.
 
"The UAE government wants 100 per cent of its teachers (to have received a) high quality education," he said. "These teachers come from 182 nationalities - so you can see the difficulties of giving licences to them. They come from different states, standards, universities and schools."
 
Highlighting the nationalities of the teachers in Dubai, Almadhi said 5,823 are Indian, 3,405 British, 1,818 Egyptians, 1,053 Filipinos and 918 Pakistanis.
 
Majority of the teachers in Dubai are females at 15,878.
 
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com