Lessons in lying: Abu Dhabi school pupils told to 'say right things' to inspectors

Abu Dhabi: The fear of school inspection results going public for the first time in Abu Dhabi is forcing private schools to try every trick in their book to impress inspectors, XPRESS has found.

Meticulous coaching and tutoring of wards who are told to lie through their teeth when inspectors meet them, came to light during interviews with a cross section of parents.

“There are no lessons happening in school," ,” M.S, an Indian parent of a grade five student told XPRESS. "All they do is prepare students to say the right things to inspectors. My daughter has been asked to say her teachers are friendly. And they obviously are not.”

The school is preparing for its third follow-up inspection within a year.

Another parent whose son studies in an Arabic private school complained his son is being taught to lie about teaching methods and projects. “My son asks me all sorts of questions on whether it is okay to lie. Apparently that is what his teachers must have told him,” said the Jordanian father who requested anonymity.

Inspection results

The deceit and drama has taken centre-stage in private schools apparently because schools fear education authorities will go public with the inspection results by the end of this year.

Unlike in Dubai where the first annual school inspection reports went public on the Knowledge and Human Development Authority’s (KHDA) website in 2009, Abu Dhabi has not yet made school report cards accessible to parents.

Inspections were started by ADEC in 2008 as a preliminary survey, which became more comprehensive in the 2009-2010 and in 2011-2012 academic years. Schools were asked to self-evaluate and the findings were verified by school inspectors who made recommendations for improvement.

It was in February 2012 that ADEC introduced ‘Irtiqa’a’, a more formalised inspection regime covering Abu Dhabi’s 179 private, and 305 public schools for the first time. The project that was rolled out in 2012-2013 academic year saw schools being inspected against eight criteria by internationally qualified inspectors.

Though ADEC had earlier told media that school inspection results will be made public by the end of 2012-2013, there has been no final decision on this front.

ADEC was not available for a comment at the time of going to print. However, schools fear their performance ratings will be an open book. Sure enough, many of them are sparing no effort to up ratings in the ongoing follow-up inspections.

“We have already shelled out hundreds of thousands in upgrading our facilities as recommended by inspectors. We cannot upset our parents when the ratings are published,” said the principal of an Asian school. He admitted schools like his have to ‘put up a show’ when inspectors are around.

The principal of an Arabic school told XPRESS that teachers are under pressure to enact their new role as facilitators of knowledge during inspections because ADEC wants teaching to be learner-centric. “Unfortunately, we cannot sustain what we do for more than a week. We cater to parents who have a traditional mindset and want their children to gain good marks,” said the principal.

Teachers’ testimony

Even teachers admit they willingly or unwillingly become part of a charade to impress ADEC’s inspectors.

“We are helpless as we have to take orders from our supervisors. We make charts and create projects which are not in our original lesson plans,” said B.E, a math teacher from an Arabic private school.

Teachers also call up parents and ask them to help students revise old lessons. “We tell our students to pretend as though we are teaching a fresh lesson. We do that to make sure students have ready answers if inspectors ask them any questions from the lesson,” said another teacher.

However, some schools vehemently deny allegations of a farce drawn under their leadership. “Those schools that put up a false show are doing so at the risk of getting caught red-handed,” said Girija Baiju, principal of International Private School in Musaffah.

She maintaints it is business as usual when inspectors come calling at her school as they follow a self-improvement plan.

Toeing a similar line, N.C. Vijayachandra, principal of Abu Dhabi Indian High school said he instructed teachers and students to act natural when ADEC inspectors come visiting. “We have nothing to hide or pretend. We welcome inspectors with an open heart and what they see is what we really are,” said Vijayachandra.