Dubai: Girls took the honours once again in the Ministry of Education’s Grade 12 exam results in both science and arts streams with pass rates of 96.06 per cent and 90.52 per cent respectively.
However, the stats released by the Ministry on Wednesday showed that the gap between boys and girls has narrowed significantly with boys scoring 90.94 per cent and 85.15 per cent in science and arts respectively.
According to Ali Mehad Al Suwaidi, Assistant Under Secretary for Educational Policies, the results this year have been significantly better across all the educational zones. However, the remote areas have fared better than the cities.
“We are happy with the result as it shows improvement across different sectors. For instance, the gap between boys and girls is narrowing, the percentages are very high and each zone has performed really well,” said Ali Mehad Al Suwaidi, thanking teachers and administrators for their hard work.
He attributed the improved performance to various factors like the change in the exam system, the proper implementation of the continuous assessment system, scholarships and rewarding system for students etc.
However, he added that there is still lot of work to be done in several areas.
“We are hiring a specialised institution to assess the exam system and look into high risk areas and we will be looking into suggestions made by them to improve further,” informed Al Suwaidi.
A total of 24,396 students appeared for the Ministry’s Grade 12 examination with 60 per cent pursuing arts stream and 40 per cent science. The number also includes pupils from private schools that follow the ministry’s curriculum.
The private schools following the ministry’s curriculum continue to lag behind the public schools which scored 96.27 per cent in science and 89.74 in arts compared to private schools which scored 89.41 in science and 79.91 in arts.
Among the 10 educational zones, the Al Gharbiyah zone (Western Region) topped the list with a pass rate of 97.54 per cent followed by Fujairah (95.77 per cent), Abu Dhabi (94.34 per cent), Al Ain (92.51 per cent) and Sharjah (91.50 per cent). Dubai is at sixth spot with a pass rate of 88.48 per cent.
“Rural and remote areas seem to have done better as student in these regions have fewer distractions so they spend more time studying,” pointed out Al Suwaidi.
The Ministry of Education on Wednesday celebrated Hagga Laila, which is part of Emirati culture to welcome Ramadan.
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Education Humaid Obaid Al Qutami said that cultural events like Hagga Laila will be made part of the school calendar in order to make pupils aware of their heritage.
“From the next year academic year Hagga Laila will fall during school days and we are going celebrate it in every school so that our pupils are aware of their culture. We are also going to add more cultural moments to the calendar,” said Al Qutami as he took part in the celebrations at his offices.
