236 inspectors visited 210 schools since October 2009
According to a statement by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), inspectors have completed the second year of their inspections of Dubai’s schools, both public and private.
They completed the cycle on Thursday and their results will be published by May. This year, the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) has also given every parent the opportunity to give their assessment of their child’s school. Parents have completed 52,707 questionnaires, which will be analysed by the DSIB and their findings will be made public.
Indian and Pakistani schools were inspected for the first time in this second cycle, because they have a different academic year. Their results were published separately last month. Of the 23 schools, seven were categorised as “good”, 11 as “acceptable”, and five as “unsatisfactory”. None was classified as Outstanding.
Dr Abdullah Al Karam, chairman of the Board of Directors and director-general of the KHDA, said: “This is now the second year of school inspections in Dubai, and we have seen that some schools worked very hard and have made significant changes. People ask us: ‘How are you going to help schools to improve?’
“We know that improving education does not come without challenges, whether you are in the public or the private sector. But, in spite of these challenges, there are schools that have shown improvement. We have seen people overcome problems and prove that standards can be raised. But the effort and the passion for such reform has to come from within the school. “We also know that improvement cannot be measured just by going up a category in your inspection; the main beneficiaries are students and their parents, and it is important to know what they are experiencing in their school, and whether they believe improvements are being made. It is a team effort to improve the quality of our schools and it is encouraging for us that this team spirit is strengthening.”
Jameela Al Muhairi, Chief, DSIB, said: “This year … we have raised the bar which has made the inspections more challenging for all schools. To reflect some of these changes, we will indicate this year whether a school has outstanding features, even though it may not win an ‘outstanding category’, or whether it has made progress compared with last year’s assessment.”
Numbers
A total of 236 inspectors visited 210 schools (78 public schools, 132 private schools) since October 2009. They spent 7,444 hours in schools, and made observations of approximately 15,000 lessons.
