In September 2010, the Abu Dhabi Education Council unveiled the New School Model for public schools in the UAE. This model recognized the need for progress in the educational sphere, providing a concrete financial accompaniment to the call to action: 24 percent of the UAE's federal budget is to be allocated to education.

The K-12 system in Abu Dhabi is split into public, or state-funded, and private schooling. According to the ADEC website, there are 265 K-12 public schools in Abu Dhabi covering all levels from kindergarten to Grade 12. The public schooling system is extremely standardized and is split into three cycles:

According to ADEC, "the New School Model seeks to instil lifelong learning in [the] child," with specific learning outcomes that are expected of all public schools. A child in Cycle 1 is expected to develop as a "communicator: bi-literate in Arabic and English," as well as a "loyal citizen: appreciative of Emirati culture and heritage" and a "sociable ... confident, healthy person."

In terms of assessment, ADEC has introduced two major national assessments, though public schools also participate in a number of international tests and surveys. Performance Indicators in Primary Schools provide detailed mathematical and literacy performance feedback, while the External Measurement of Student Achievement serves as a comprehensive standardized testing program for Grades 3-12. It measures performance in Arabic language, English language, mathematics and science.

Very little information is available on this cycle due to planned changes that are being implemented in the current academic year. According to their website, "ADEC is planning modification in the methods of teaching and learning that will permit students to explore a broader range of learning opportunities in a more active and engaged environment."

Upon successful completion of Grade 10, students enter either the Science or Literature track for the duration of their final two years in K-12. The former comprises all three sciences as well as information and communications technology and mathematics; the latter is oriented less toward natural sciences and includes economics, geography and history courses.

Upon successful completion of either of these tracks, Grade 12 students are awarded an Al Thanawiya Al Ama'a certificate from the Ministry of Education as an official record of their graduation.

An independent narrative on the education system was released in mid-February by The Brookings Institution in the form of a study titled "Arab Youth: Missing Educational Foundations for a Productive Life?" The study was intended as a companion piece for the accompanying Arab World Learning Barometer, published online. The Barometer and the study focus on the Arab World as a whole; The Gazelle presents a basic summary of the sections relevant to the UAE.

 

Dubai-based Knowledge and Human Development Authority recognizes these issues, and carried out a 2011 study “Addressing the Early School Leaving Challenge” recommending increased public awareness, early warning and intervention in schools and further research to determine the issues in which the dropout rate is rooted.

Maysa Jalbout, non-resident fellow at The Brookings Institution and co-author of the Arab World Learning Barometer and accompanying study, spoke to the crucial importance of the K-12 schooling system for the Gulf and the Arab world at large.

"There’s a lot of talk about higher education at the moment, a lot of talk about issues like the importance of integrating technology, and all of that ... is important, but we wanted to bring the focus back to the very fundamental issue of lack of foundational skills," Jalbout said.

Jalbout also noted that the foundational learning problems in the UAE, manifested in the large percentage of children that are not learning in primary and secondary school, is highly stratified by region.

“Because there are huge disparities from one part of the UAE to the other … it’s an average, [so] the problems are clustered in areas outside of Abu Dhabi and Dubai," she commented.

Jalbout believes in the importance of recruiting good teachers. She explained that the teaching profession is no longer seen the way it used to be and that teachers' social status has slipped from its place in the upper echelons of the employment hierarchy to that of a back-up plan for those who cannot make it into higher-skill or higher-paying jobs.

"Unfortunately, the teaching profession is feeding a cycle of mediocrity into the education sector. You’re getting mediocre teachers into the system because in some sense … it’s become the go-to profession if you don’t have many other options," said Jalbout.

She also commented that teaching is particularly attractive for women in the Gulf, from a cultural standpoint. Teaching is viewed as a respectable-enough position, but one that gives plenty of time off and allows for the balancing of family with work.

An issue that the UAE is constantly navigating is one of demographics, and this is certainly pertinent for the educational sphere. The most recent census estimate puts the national/non-national population estimates at an 11 to 89 ratio.

Should this ratio be reflected in the teaching staff of public schools? Should it be tailored to reflect the student body, of whom roughly 25 percent are nationals? Does the UAE's unique demography complicate efforts to introduce stricter requirements for aspiring teachers? These questions drive much of the debate surrounding education and the recruitment of teachers in the public sphere, and few answers currently exist.

Jalbout noted that most of the Arab world is grappling with how to standardize teacher qualifications. Much of the teacher training in the Gulf is still done by foreign academies, a practice that is clearly unsustainable and has the potential to foster discontent over ethics and the conservation of culture.

Update: Part 2 of this series is published here.