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.