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.