Where is ADIA?

Where is ADIA? i.e., the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, supposedly the largest SWF in the world. Instead what I could manage to get from Davos is Dr. Tony Tan from Singapore's SWF, the GIC.

ADIA does not have a habit of dropping by Davos, but I had hoped that they would make an exception this year. In the June last year, the secretive ADIA allowed Businessweek magazine to feature them. They had started to make themselves noticed because the Americans are getting concerned about the investment activities of large SWFs. These days, SWFs need to be seen, heard in order to be understood. Why stay away from Davos?

To me ADIA absence from Davos is a very negative sign. Here in Dubai I often hear of Abu Dhabi coming to Dubai financial rescue. The leading newspapers and magazines suggest as much, but now I am thinking may be they are all wrong. ADIA could be absent for the overlapping reasons why Fulds, Blankfein, Thain, Mack etc., are taking leave of Davos this year. The reasons why ADIA was not at Davos previously no longer apply.

I overheard in the elevator

Yesterday on my way down to the car park, two gentlemen entered the elevator on the 18th floor. I didn't expect their conversation to be so interesting. One of them was a property agent and he was telling his prospect that he can rent for 165K in two cheques. Back in October last year, the asking price was 190K in one cheque. One or two cheques for those of you who are not familiar means you pay 12 months in advance rental or 6 months ahead. Yes, just another one more of those ridiculous practices here.

The advert in Dubizzle (see pix above) yesterday was asking for 170K. I think lower than 165K is coming soon.


Now I am waiting for car prices to fall big time. The market here is very opaque and the listed prices remain high as ever. On the other hand the number of abandoned cars at the airport has increased and some are even leaving their cars a little away and riding a cab to the departure hall. I wonder who is watching. Perhaps we will soon be making silly trips to the airport here like many of us have been doing, visiting Changi airport back home. I know of no other country where people go to the airport just for fun or curiosity. Add Dubai to that list.


The general rule of the market is this: On the way up it is an arithmetic progression; on the way down a geometric one. Now Dubai wants to dam the prices. If they fail, the water will overflow or worse the dam might burst.

I welcome a dose of reality

I could have inserted many more realistic stories of the markets and economy here to counter the almost brain dead optimism of recovery beginning from the middle of this year that the newspapers here regularly feed their printing presses but I wanted one from Singapore. This is to stick to "From Singapore to Dubai". So when I saw the Bloomberg video from Singapore's Finance Minster that "Worst of Credit Crisis Yet to Come", I tell myself this must appear as as story on this blog.

Get real folks, the global credit machine is so badly broken that we do not know how to repair it. All the fiscal measures are only to buy time. They do not solve the problem. And if you owe money and cannot pay, you are in real trouble. There is no borrowing from Peter to pay Paul this time.

CNY Vehicle Accidents

As far back as I can remember, with the exception of last year; I have always spotted at least one road accident on Singapore roads over the Chinese New Year holidays. Here in Dubai, I have seen about four or five in the last three or four days (they don't celebrate CNY here), and many near misses beside. The standard of driving here is pathetic, the worst I have seen among all the places I have visited. Perhaps another time after I am sure it is safe to share, I will tell you how I passed my driving test here on my first attempt.

I had wanted to take some shots of these accidents but it was difficult with both my hands behind the wheels. There was one two days ago that involved four cars, two of them taxis along the SZR, their main freeway.

Today I got my chance to get an accident photo (see above). This was at the girls' school car park. The damage is away from our view and I also didn't want to be seen snapping away. I zoomed in from far away. The driver's side door of the Toyota Landcruiser was bashed in, probably by the reversing white GM SUV. Looks like if GM could not beat Toyota in the market place, this may be the way to go!

Now in this crazy place, you don't move your vehicles unless it is obstructing the road - In this instance a car park. The drivers are waiting, probably till kingdom come for the police to arrive. Without a police report no vehicle workshop will repair the damage.

Many of the rules and ways here are crazy. I think it is entirely appropriate to invite Gurmit Singh here to tell them to, "Use your..." If you have watched Phua Chu Kang on TV, you know what I mean!

CNY smses from Singapore

Very happy to have received several CNY messages from Singapore when it occured to me to turn on my Singapore mobile this morning. The above is one of my favorite as it is in Chinese too.

Reunion Dinner in Dubai

If it were back home in Singapore, we would have a steamboat dinner at home. Here in Dubai, we could not find all the ingredients we need for a good steamboat, so we settle for a cantonese dinner at Lam Kwai Fong, which is near to Lamcy Plaza.

We ordered lotus root soup, steamed fish, claypot toufu and beef with spring onion. The bill size was reasonable, about 280 dhs.

Chinese New Year's Eve

The Web allows me to peek into what is happening to Singapore any time. I was wondering what it might be like when most people are joining their families for reunion dinner tonight. The temperatures is a cool 28 max and there is light rain. The reality is I have a pulse on Singapore's weather all the time. My gmail background is set to display the weather and right now, consistent with the NEA website, it is showing rain.




Over here in Dubai, the weather is cold. It was 12 degrees this morning and now about 3.30pm, it is 20 degrees. Some parts of the UAE is even snowing, i.e., in Ras Al Khaimah as you can see below, a photo I took from Gulf News.

Eve of the Eve of Chinese New Year

It is 10pm here, 2am in Singapore. It must be quite exciting back home in Ghim Moh. I wonder how many people are thronging the market downstairs now. I used to run downstairs to take a look but of course I can only imagine what it must be like; how the financial crisis is affecting the buying behavior.

The photo above was taken with my first Sony Mavica camera. It is a dinosaur of a digital camera by today's standards. It captured photos in VGA only and store them to floppies, so please forgive the quality. The shot was taken nine years ago, and on the eve of the eve of CNY of course.

Chinese New Year in Dubai

There are no air of festivities around here. We have not found any Chinatown here, and the closest we have discovered of a Chinese community is the Dragon-mart, you guess it, is a mall. Carrefour at the Mall of the Emirates has really large signs selling fruits at CNY promotional prices, and yes, a fair bit of Mandarin oranges too. You cannot expect much more; even Deepavali here is quite muted and most people here are from the Subcontinent.

The biggest display of CNY I have found is in the girls' school. Our two girls have been "volunteered" into a song item on the 27th. We would not be there to see them perform though. It is a pupils and teachers only event.

Dubai Internet City

I suppose Dubai's answer to Singapore's Science Park is their Internet City. It is just across the freeway from where we live in the Views/Greens. In fact, we can see the other side of our apartment from Internet City.

Confirming Borders why Bother? The Borders Express shop

We visited Dubai Marina Mall several weeks back. This mall is very near to where we used to live when the company put us up at the Nuran Residences. We visited again today as we heard that the Waitrose supermarket is now open.

The Borders bookshop at Ibn Batutta Mall since we arrived in September last year till now is not yet open but surprisingly Borders Express at Dubai Marina Mall has opened so quickly.

Now "Express" is a good word for "unsubstantial". It is a small bookshop, not interesting at all. Worse, "Express" has usually meant faster service which commands premium prices. True enough, a paper back copy of Galdwell's, "Outliers" is tagged at 99Dhs versus 77Dhs at Kinokuniya in Dubai Mall.

Once again, Borders why bother?

Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year to all of you back home!

I took this from my alma mater (no permission and also too late to ask, so understand why it might suddenly disappear from here!)

Move your mouse inside the box and let the "yu" follow you. May this happen to you in 2009

Yet another rental car

Just hours ago, I returned our wonderful 2009 Accord to Thrifty for this 2009 Camry. Everyone complained that the Camry is inferior to the Accord. I hope they would grow to like it after a few rides.

The Accord has to be sent back as it was time to be serviced. I was quite displeased with them as they wanted to trade a 2008 Accord with almost 70,000 km on it for the 11,000 km Accord I was driving. I opted for a Camry instead, which has done about 12,000 km.

Visit to a Korean Supermart - Asiana Trading LLC

Yesterday I shared how we use Google Maps, Google Earth and then our Garmin GPS device to find a new place of interest (click here for that story). Well this morning we put that plan into action and visited Asiana Trading, a Korean Supermart. Quite an interesting place. We bought back titbits like prawn crackers, seaweed etc., also took away a bottle of Green Tea...

Angst over the new exams here

I want to avoid whole reproduction of newspaper articles here. The National newspaper (see article) published some reaction from parents and students on how they had performed in their recent Grade 12 exams, i.e., the equivalent of A Levels or IB Singapore students would take back home, but in this case it was only the mid-year exams.

Grades have fallen by large quantums for those who had taken the exams. I noticed only those who had previously done extremely well were featured in the article. Average percentage falls of 20% are not uncommon. These were pupils who used to return with 90 over percent.

The cause of the grades discount is the shift from testing memorising to analytical thinking. Sounds familiar? Singapore has been down that path many years back. It caused many parents to be unable to help their children with their school work. As a result, the tution industry boomed. I think this is going to be the new growth industry here. If so, good for them; even as I feel we are over doing it in Singapore.

It is good that the UAE Ministry of Education is not apologising for this and instead is sticking with the new testing format. In time this will bear fruit.

How we get to a new place via GPS.

First we locate the place on Google map. In this case we are trying to locate a Korean supermart after Lin brought back a big bag of Korean chips, a gift from her classmate and wanted to get some more.


Then we click on the Google Earth link to launch the app. See below.





Mouse over, and zoomed in reveals the GPS co-ordinates for Asian Trading, which is on the second floor of the Safesway Building.

Location: 25N 11' 26.44", 55E 15' 25.15"

The next step is decidedly low tech. With a ball point pen, I write down the above co-ords; take it down to the car and manually input them.

Will the schools here improve?

The UAE is working on improving the quality of their education. I am sure its leaders know how poorly they were faring before subjecting themselves to the TIMSS tests. You can roughly figure out the politics and decision making process from pieceing together news and research reports.


Source: http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090122/OPINION/785750594/-1/ART

A hard lesson – but it has to be learnt

‘It’s like being given an onion and asked to make honey.” That is how one pupil described sitting new examinations focusing on critical thought rather than memorised answers. Indeed, with the overall pass rate for the exams conducted last month falling to 60 per cent from over 80 per cent the previous year, it is easy to see just how unprepared this batch of 18-year-olds were for the switch in emphasis.

Their natural reaction has been to complain, with some going so far as to protest outside the Ministry of Education in Abu Dhabi. Hanif Hassan, the Education Minister, has stood firm, saying the “more challenging” exams will remain. He is to be applauded for his stance and we give him our full support. Inevitably, there will be objections. There will be strife at home when parents, who are accustomed to seeing their children scoring 90 per cent and more, see lower grades. There may be angry phone calls to schools. Even teachers themselves say that the new exams are too tough. Pressure on Mr Hassan to ease up on pupils will mount.

But what the Minister knows is that the national education system, in its current form, is inadequate to deliver on the nation’s stated aim of developing a successful knowledge economy. After all, what good will it do to have world-class companies setting up here if the nation’s youngsters are not educated enough to compete for the jobs they will offer? Studies such as the recent TIMSS tests have revealed that pupils are learning far less than their contemporaries in highly developed countries. Pupils on the national curriculum are performing well below the international average.

However, the more difficult challenge facing Mr Hassan is to convince schools and their teaching staffs that they are not giving pupils a quality education. As a study conducted by the British University of Dubai showed, teachers in state schools sincerely believe that they are teaching critical thinking, yet classroom observers noted that in practice they usually demand no more than memorising assigned reading. This is what must change if exam grades are to improve. It is not easy to impress upon dedicated members of a proud profession that the way they are practising it is outdated. Measures must be taken to taken to ensure this is done sensitively, to avoid widespread demoralisation.

For it is not necessarily the teachers’ fault: rather it is the system that must change. Exam reform is pointless if teachers are not given training to help them to meet the new standards. New teachers must be certificated, but although the Government announced in August that it would create a system to achieve this, no details of how it is to be done or what criteria it will focus on have since emerged. And as it stands, many teachers have no formal qualifications for the role. They are also underpaid: their wages are well below the UAE’s per capita GDP, contrasting with average teacher salaries in countries with high-performing education systems, where salaries stand at around 1.5 times per capita GDP.

If these issues can be addressed, our young people will respond. They are being asked to find solutions to problems, not to conjure honey from onions, and their protestations outside the Ministry of Education show initiative and energy that can only benefit from more stimulating schooling.

My Singapore neighbour in Dubai

Victor our neighbour and dad of Lin's very close friend Jadyn was in Dubai for a few days on business. With all official business done, I met up with him and his business partner for a quick tour of Dubai this morning. First stop was the aquarium at Dubai Mall. You can see them failing to get the shark to smile and pose for them. Not their fault, the fish has no IQ or EQ.

Final dinner from Jasmine

Jasmine cooked a last big meal for us - by our standards as we are very small eaters. Last meal because she flew back to Singapore with Sarah last night. We ate the same dinner this evening because we could only manage half of it for dinner yesterday.

We will miss her delicious home cooked meals and truly appreciate that she quietly tries to find out what our girls like and prepare them.

All the best to Sarah as she rejoins her school back in Singapore.

Failed Parking

I see cars park like in the picture above probably ten times more often than any where else in the world I have driven. I don't know why, may be it is because you do not need to pass a RTA parking test before going for the road test and getting a driver's licence. The parking lots here are about a third larger than ours, and yet they missed so often.

First visit to the Doc

I was wondering how long here before we have to see a doctor? Daisy hasn't been well for quite a few days. Rest didn't work, symptoms have worsen and so finally I took her to the American Hospital this morning.

In Singlish style, "So how much?" We paid 50 AED but the the rest of the bill foot by "Ah Kong" is almost 1,000 AED, i.e., about S$400. Daisy got a lot of useless time with the doc and a bag full of medicines. The cough mixture, the "Ivy leaf" type is the same we usually get back home. The antibiotics is more interesting - Two tablets once a day; an hour before meals for three days. This is a lot easier to follow than the four times a day over four to five days most GPs prescribed back home.

Robert Zoellick on Education in the Arab World

As a newcomer, I cannot understand why the Arabs are do disinterested in education. Even Robert Zoellick is felt compelled to press this point with them.

Don't they appreciate that they will often get a bad deal in many commercial transactions simply because not enough of their people are adequately educated?

In Singapore we are always making our government better because of our rising levels of education. Look at how the quality of the letters to the Forum in the ST have improved over the years.


Full text of speech at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:22037728~pagePK:34370~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html

Excerpt,

This has to be linked to education. The quality of education in the Arab World has simply not kept up with the needs of the modern economy. Education systems do not equip students with the skills that they need. Illiteracy remains twice as high as in East Asia or Latin America.

The Arab World must provide meaningful employment to a growing workforce – and these jobs have to come from the private sector. But private sector growth in the region is impeded by barriers to entry and lack of competition, caused by unequal, discretionary, and often preferential arrangements. Improved public sector and corporate governance can help open the door to greater opportunity for more people who want to work and build.

Schools here fall far short of world standards

I say "far short", the National says "short". After reading this you will agree with my "far short".

I hope the UAE understand that it is not just the schools but the family and social environment also matter. This problem will take years to solve. If you plan to relocate the whole family to this place, be prepared to do a lot of work with your children to keep their standards up.

From The National (http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090118/NATIONAL/62395914/1010)

Schools fall short of world standards
Kathryn Lewis
Last Updated: January 18. 2009 9:30AM UAE / January 18. 2009 5:30AM GMT

Dubai’s schools need immediate changes if they are to compete internationally, an independent report that will be sent to the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders says.

The Dubai School of Government report paints an especially grim picture of state schools, based on the results of Dubai’s recent participation in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) exams.

Dubai state schools performed significantly worse than the emirate’s private schools, which also fell short of top international standards.

The report makes several recommendations, including extending the school year, licensing teachers and modernising teaching methods.

It will be presented to ministry officials in the coming weeks and has been seen by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), which oversees Dubai’s schools.

Improving the schools will require immediate and comprehensive action by the ministry, said the report’s author, Mike Helal, a visiting researcher at the Dubai School of Government.

“A piecemeal approach to each of these areas is not going to succeed in any efficient education reform,” Mr Helal said, adding that lengthening the school day and year in state schools should be the ministry’s priority.

The TIMSS exam, which assesses the maths and science skills of 10- and 14-year-old pupils, was conducted in more than 50 countries. The tests were scored on a scale from zero to 1,000, with 500 representing the average.

TIMSS classifies pupils in four achievement levels: advanced, high, intermediate and low. At the Grade 4 level in maths, only two per cent of Dubai pupils performed at the advanced level. In contrast, 41 per cent of pupils in Singapore and 40 per cent in Hong Kong reached that level.

“There is a substantial gap” between Dubai and comparable cities, Mr Helal said.

“After all, Dubai has a very similar economy to the likes of Hong Kong and Singapore.”
Grade 4 pupils in Dubai scored 444 in maths, and 416 in science. Pupils in Grade 8 fared slightly better with scores of 461 in maths and 489 in science – in the vicinity of countries such as Georgia, Romania and Armenia.

Fatma al Marri, the CEO of the KHDA’s Dubai Schools Agency, said the paper represented an “exciting first step” in gauging the significance of the TIMSS results for Dubai.

Ms al Marri said she hoped the report would lead to more co-operation between public and private schools in Dubai.

Education reform is a top priority for the Government at every level. Recent policy documents published by Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and the UAE governments stress the importance of education.

It is estimated that 250,000 people will enter the UAE workforce by 2020, and the Government’s education agenda is intended to prepare them for the rising demands of the business world.

Dubai pupils posted higher scores than those in other MENA and GCC countries, including Yemen, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. But most pupils participating in those countries came from state schools, Mr Helal said. In Dubai, 85 per cent of schools are private, and almost 70 per cent of the pupils who sat the exam were at private schools.

“If a detailed breakdown were to be released it would be revealed that [Dubai] public schools are not in fact leading the region,” Mr Helal said. “The public schools currently have a level of achievement much lower than the private sector.”

The poor performance of the state school system has led many Emirati parents to place their children in private schools. In Dubai, 44 per cent of Emirati pupils are not in the state school system.

Dubai participated in the TIMSS scheme for the first time this year. “As a starting point, this is a very mature step that Dubai has taken,” Mr Helal said. But overall, he said, “the target needs to be much higher” than the performance of other GCC nations.

Mr Helal referred to the fact that 28 per cent of Grade 4 pupils did not meet the “low benchmark” set by the testing body as cause for serious concern.

Among all participating countries, only seven per cent of pupils failed to do so.
As well as extending classroom hours, Mr Helal has recommended that teacher certification be introduced and teacher training be expanded, and that teachers adopt methods of instruction to replace the “antiquated” emphasis on learning by rote.

The ministry already is shifting methods of instruction away from rote and has adopted the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s standards-driven curriculum.

A source at the ministry said recommendations to extend the school year and certify teachers have been presented in the past few months but no action has been taken.
The Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, and the ministry’s director general, Rashid al Nuaimi, did not respond to requests for comment.

CNY Reunion Dinner

No pictures of private citizens. Readers of this blog should have known by now that I never put up photos of people I know here.

Well, we just had a Skype video conference with my extended family. My brother hosted the reunion dinner this year at his place. It is the first time we get to see all of them in one place since we moved here. It must have been quite an experience for my dad as this was his first video-talk experience.

Will we do it again? I think only for occasions like this. It is just more practical and also with better voice quality to just use the phone.

All elevators in service now

Since two days ago, all the three elevators are now in service. This must be the most boring and ugliest photo I have posted here. Kinda of hard to get a photo of all three lifts working. By the way, the roads around here have been noticeably quieter since the start of the new year. Where have they all disappeared to? I think most of them are still around, but less than 5% of people who have gone away can make a big difference to the traffic situation; not just the roads, but elevators too.

Some friends say Singapore's Orchard road is also quieter but others said no. I think they all go there to gawk and buy nothing. I have been doing the same here, but I rarely go beyond window shopping anyway. I prefer my money in my pocket but Uncle Sam printing money like no tomorrow may yet steal it in ways which not evil spirit is capable of.

12 hours after the thunderstorm

Twelve hours after last night thunderstorm, the water as expected has no place to drain to except as vapor from the sun's heat as there are no drains here. Since the sun cannot do the job quickly, they have enlisted these water trucks to pump up the water.

Traffic this morning was slow in many places as vehicles had to navigate around many water ponds. Many vehicles parked over night in open spaces were trapped.

The Annual Thunderstorms have arrived

I can't wait to post this. The thunderstorms that I have often heard is coming is here tonight. The kids are wondering if they have to go to school tomorrow as massive flooding is expected. I am wondering if our car in the basement would be safe from the rush of waters. I am sure there will be some unlucky ones.

Saving money the sneaky way?

This must have been posted by an unhappy neighbour. We have three elevators serving our 35-storey tower. On each floor there are seven apartments. Mysteriously the building management has disabled one of them. During peak hours, it can get quite congested. Sometimes movers will monopolize one of them and it can be very inconvenient.

I think they are trying to save electricity because there are too many empty apartment units.

Humorous Arabic to English

I think I can let the picture above tell the story. This photo was taken at the traffic junction when the lights were red.

Aid for Gaza

Saw them stuffing these newly bought and donated aid into the container at Mall of the Emirates a couple of days ago. This is the view from the secnd storey (they call it first floor here) of the car park. I was wondering how they are going to get pass the Israelis to those suffering in Gaza. I saw on BBC World Service that the Israelis are providing humanitarian aid...depending on which station you are watching, even they are not trying to be impartial. I wonder what does being impartial mean here. It has become so complex and confusing.

How does Dubai measure up in standards of education?

Dubai schools fare very very badly. I have noticed the big gap between my girls and the majority of their classmates. It is truly bad news to know that this probably extend to the entire school system here. What happened to the children of many highly qualified expatriates working here?

If they haven't been investing in educating their young, they simply have no future.


How does Dubai measure up in standard of education?
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/01/09/10273586.html
01/09/2009 06:38 PM By Mike Helal, Special to Gulf News

The 2007-2008 school year marked Dubai's first participation in the international Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS), a global comparative test assessing student achievement in mathematics and science. It is hosted by the Lynch School of Education at Boston College every four years. The test assesses pupils at the fourth and eighth grade levels, two educational milestones considered to signify the end of primary schooling and the end of lower-secondary school.

To better inform education policy, TIMSS also poses an array of background questions to pupils. By participating in the test and interpreting results in light of the included contextual information, Dubai now has internationally comparable data about the progress of local education that will inform future educational policy decisions and allow policymakers to improve the quality of education.

The results of the 2007 TIMMS, released on December 9, 2008, show Dubai to have a strong standing amongst GCC countries and nations within the Middle East in general. In fact, public and private pupils in Dubai achieved the highest marks in mathematics and science of any included Arab country. However, room for improvement exists when compared to the rest of the world. Neither grade 4 nor grade 8 pupils met the international average in science or mathematics, and both fell nearly 100 points below world leaders Singapore and Hong Kong. In the fourth grade, only 2 per cent of pupils managed to achieve the advanced international benchmark, compared to 41 per cent of Singaporean pupils, 10 per cent of pupils in the US and an international average of 5 per cent. A slightly brighter picture emerges from grade 8, where 3 per cent of all pupils surpassed the advanced international benchmark compared to 40 per cent of Singaporean students, 6 per cent of American ones and a global mean of 2 per cent.
In the context of these findings, it is clear that education reforms are necessary in order to increase the percentage of pupils achieving higher international benchmarks. If Dubai aspires to become an educational hub leading today's knowledge economy, where should policymakers start?

A closer look at the TIMSS data finds schools in Dubai to be particularly hindered by a short school year. The Ministry of Education estimates that public schools in Dubai have an academic year of 175 days. At least 20 of these days are dedicated to testing, leaving approximately 155 school days for teaching and learning. Countries such as Japan and Singapore maintain academic years of around 220 days, while the United States and Australia teach for around 190 days a year. Furthermore, the school day in Dubai consists of just 4.5 hours of instructional time (22.5 hours per week). This is a grave gauge, as it falls well below the 27 hours per week averaged internationally. If Dubai were to maintain its average of 22.5 hours per week of real learning, the emirate would effectively fall one full day behind international counterparts every week. Extending the length of time spent by pupils in Dubai schools would unravel time constraints faced by teachers, allowing for broadened learning that encompasses critical thinking and real world problem solving skills.

Teachers' qualification

TIMSS questionnaires also reveal a low rate of teachers with education qualifications in Dubai schools. Most teachers in Dubai enter the profession with only a nominal understanding of the intricacies of effective pedagogy. This ultimately results in pupil disengagement and lower achievement. Requiring teachers to have a background that specifically includes teaching credentials would see classes being taught by teachers who assist pupils in exploring, discovering and creating knowledge.
At the same time, the professional development of existing teachers in Dubai was found to rank highly when compared to the rest of the world. However, much of this training focuses on content. Mathematics teachers, in particular, spend a disproportionate amount of their time on content training.

A more productive way of structuring professional development would be to take advantage of the strength in content that these teachers already have and invest it in pedagogy training. Teachers in Dubai should also be assisted in learning how to use ICT for educational purposes, an area that remains weak in Dubai.

Dubai schools were found to have the lowest rates of parent participation in children's education worldwide. There are no policies stipulated by education councils or ministries mandating the existence of parent committees in Dubai. This contrasts with other countries which use such committees as a vehicle for quality control. Opening the channels of communication with parents will ultimately assist in raising standards at any institution.
Finally, it is imperative that every school is equipped with the resources it needs for teaching and learning. The background questions identify the most needed resources in Dubai's school as science laboratories, sufficient reading resources and Information and Communication Technology facilities.

By drawing schools into the policy circle and giving individual schools an active role in policy formation, policymakers would be better able to identify such needs.
Dubai is lauded around the world for its prolific growth, and the time has come for it to lead the world in knowledge development. The state of education around Dubai should be lifted through data-driven reform to meet and transcend international thresholds.

International standardised tests such as TIMSS can assist policymakers at the Ministry of Education and Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority to juxtapose local procedures with international best practice. This is especially vital in light of the UAE's impending employment needs, with the forecasted entry of 250,000 more jobseekers into the workforce by 2020.

With the world embracing knowledge as a coveted commodity, the issue of adequately educating this imminently large workforce becomes paramount.

Mike Helal is a visiting researcher at the Dubai School of Government.

How many people to change a light bulb?

You must have at one time or another received jokes in your mail about how many people are needed to change a light bulb. Well, the answer here in Dubai is sometimes four. This picture was taken at the Springs community centre not far from our housing estate. Our estate is managed by the same company, and I am fairly sure they are among the best in Dubai.

I didn't have the picture, but it seems to me that they wash the car park every other day. Each time I can see at least seven or eight of them engage in this water activity. Lots of water and water is very pricey here. May be they use the local version of new water, I don't know.

Straits Times on Dubai

Not exactly Straits Times, but printed in the ST is a story by AFP on Dubai. The picture is certainly an old one. We know as were living in Dubai Marina during our first six weeks in a serviced aparment - The Nuran, paid for by the company.

I would have thought an article like this should have graced the pages of the newspapers here, but no. To me this place is in denial. When you take such a stance you have to strike a careful balance between looking real stupid and credible. The latest? They are optimistic that there will be a recovery in the second half of 2009.

On the other hand, Singapore is not in denial but prefers not to frighten its people how bad this downturn is going to be.

As for the stock market rally going on now in the STI (elsewhere too)? Well, a lot of it would probaby have to be returned. There had been recessions since the last world war, but this one is a Recession. A big "R" over the many small "r"s. I am only hoping that we don't trade this "R" for a "D", which never comes in small "d"s. Why? Nobody has any blinking idea on how to unlock this credit crisis because nobody trust anybody any more.

What about fiscal stimulus? That is only to buy time and I hope it works. It is like the doctor's rest or MC. It usually works because somehow the body's immune system gets to work and it is OK afterward. Whoever says an economic and financial recovery can be understood? So markets please rally on, but this time I think you are way too early as the debt problem cannot disappear overnight, and we have not figured out how to grow quickly without huge amounts of debt. This in a nutshell is Dubai's problem.

Mysterious SMS

At first I didn't want to blog about this but may be the person who sent me that sms will reveal himself/herself if I do.

On New Year's eve I received a surprise SMS from Singapore on my Dubai mobile number. It was an encouraging greeting for the New Year. I don't have a photographic memory for words, but the gist of it is that 2009 would be tough but the tough will survive. I showed the message to Daisy too.

Except to some family members, I don't remember giving my mobile number to anyone back home. As I tried to identify the number, my silly phone froze and I had to reset it. Since my lack of photographic memory extends also to numbers, that is also gone.

Except myself, the family has been watching Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot on DVD over the past couple of weeks. I wished I could ask Hercule Poirot for some ideas, but of course Poirot only talks to you and not you to him!

So who is this mysterious person who had smsed me? Perhaps this will remain unsolved. Let's see if I receive another SMS from this person for CNY or may be my birthday. Do you think an angel or vampire ala "Twilight", which I am very curious but not seen or read, text that greeting? OK, I am going to stop the silly speculation. An angel is more believable than a vampire.

I was told that Agatha Christie just simply vanished and to this day could not be found.

Celebrating New Year

New Year has always been a quiet affair for us, so quiet that I cannot remember any of them except one trip with our friends to Tree Top Walk two years ago. We should try to do that walk again on our home visit.

Two years ago, we visited the Ski Dubai (see picture). On New Year evening, we had dinner in a Vietnamese restaurant overlooking the ski. Earlier in the afternoon we went to Spring Bamboo near Lamcy Plaza for lunch after we took the wrong turn. We had planned to go to Festival Centre as the children like a restaurant there (I can't remember the name). They were understandably dismayed by the change of plans.

New year's eve is also our wedding anniversary. This is the twentieth year already, how time flies. We had a Jap lunch at the Crowne Plaza hotel. Back home we usually go for a buffet dinner in a hotel, and of course we get fleeced for doing so. Twenty years ago, the banquet manager at Holiday Inn Parkview pleaded with me to change the date of the wedding reception and I refused. She had made the mistake of giving away the ballroom to me on the 31st. Every year after that the hospitality industry has been extracting its pound of flesh from me. No problem, many things are not to be measured with money. The money path has caused many to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

No countdown celebration for Dubai

This photo is from the WSJ. I can tell that this is the main trunk road of the Palm Jumeirah, that man made palm frond shape peninsula near our place. Fireworks is cancelled because at the last minute, the ruler of Dubai issued the order that there will be not festivities to usher in the new year. This is to express the emirate sympathy with those living in Gaza that are facing the brutal attack by the Israeli military against them. Anyway there are also many Palestinians living and working in Dubai. So the government reaction is appropriate.

The conflict over the lands of Israel and Palestine, especially over Jerusalem is perhaps the most intractable in the whole of human history. So many people believe that it would have to take the divine itself to solve it. Pragmatists do not think it can be solved and probably treat it like an AIDS infection. You cannot cure it but at least you try to prevent it from getting out of control.

I think the most important thing here is to keep trying to achieve a settlement towards peace and never giving up despite countless setbacks.