Overhaul for school curriculum

ABU DHABI // The Ministry of Education has unveiled sweeping reforms of public education in the UAE, with a new curriculum and a new focus on modern teaching methods taught in public schools. The changes will affect more than 280,000 public school pupils starting from kindergarten to grade nine, and is an ambitious effort to tackle many of the deficiencies in the public school system. Under the new system, announced by the Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, public schools will emphasise creative thinking and problem solving over rote learning, will add teaching of English starting at kindergarten, and will rely on setting educational milestones to measure student achievement. The ministry has adopted a new curriculum, developed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. By grade two, for example, pupils in maths will be expected to count up to 99 and add, subtract, multiply and divide. By grade five, they should be able to count to 1,000 and solve four-digit addition and subtraction problems. And by grade six, they should be able to do calculations with fractions, decimals and simple percentages. The public school system, open mainly to Emiratis, has been widely criticised for failing to prepare pupils for university. Up to one third of federal university budgets now go towards yearlong foundation courses, which many students must take to improve their English language skills before commencing university. This is largely because Arabic is the primary language of instruction in public schools, but classes at federal universities are largely taught in English. "The existing curriculum is largely driven by a textbook," said Dr Vincent Ferrandino, the head of policy and planning at the Ministry of Education. "That textbook drives the instruction, and a good part of the instruction is based mostly on rote memorisation, whereas a standards-based curriculum is based upon a set of expectations for students." Officials hope the new standards will create a national discussion about the expectations for learning, and enable educators to compare student performance from zone to zone and region to region, instead of measuring students on marks alone, said Paul Doorn, the manager of the public private partnership programme at the education council. "We can begin to develop a better understanding of what students know and can do - and perhaps just as importantly what areas are needed for improvement," Mr Doorn added. "The current reforms happening in schools are really about raising expectations. So in terms of raising expectations, if you want to start having that discussion with schools, principals and parents, first of all you have to explain to them what the expectation is that students should know and be able to do. That's why the council standards are a critical starting point." Ministry of Education officials have been careful to point out that the changes will be gradual. The ministry will spend the next year creating resources tailored to the curriculum before embarking on a massive teacher training programme. Once teachers have been brought up to speed on the new standards, a new set of examinations tailored to the new curriculum will be rolled out. "Our plan is to implement assessments as we bring the standards up to the level that we want them to be," said Dr Ferrandino. "I would say in the next couple of years we will start to see national assessments in place." In addition to the curriculum announcement, Dr Hassan outlined several new reforms that the ministry would be focusing on in the next year. Those include a code of conduct for children in public schools and a new Arabic curriculum for students in the first and second grade. klewis@thenational.ae