UAE | Education

Ministry to train 700 educators

Leadership programme aims to improve the quality of education

By Noor Nazzal Special to Gulf News
Published: 21:00 February 1, 2013

Dubai: Around 700 educators will undergo a development in leadership programme to improve the quality of education in the UAE to meet international standards.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) started implementing its school leadership programme yesterday by holding morning meetings in different educational districts across the UAE to discuss the programme’s implementation and objectives.

The programme will target a total of 700 principals, assistants and teachers in a period of 5 years where each year 140 candidates will take part of the programme. During the first year the programme will be implemented in a period of 6 months whle in the remaining four years they will complete 9 months of training.

Each candidate will be subjected to 400 hours of training while 60 candidates will be given an opportunity to undergo 75 additional hours in Britain during both the 1st and 5th year of the programme.

According to the acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Mihd Suwaidi, the programme aims to improve the quality of education in order to meet international standards. Other objectives include raising the level of competence among administrative leaders in the educational field and providing better training opportunities to enhance the quality and efficiency of education and teaching in schools. The programme also hopes to cater to the needs of learners as well as prepare national cadres to become qualified leaders in the field of education.

Fawzia Hassan Gharib, Assistant Undersecretary for Educational Operations concluded by stating that the programme is based on a study assessing the needs of school administrations in the context of its current practices in state schools. According to Gharib the programme will focus on the empowerment of trainees to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies in all relevant areas with effective leadership skills. She also stated that the programme was designed by the national educational institution in accordance with the terms of reference and regulations of the Ministry of Education.

Facilities were implemented in the field of education and school districts to identify training places and the project was implemented in partnership with (Pearson Education). Trainees who complete the programme will undergone training which will be equivalent to one third of the requirements for a master’s degree from the University of Nottingham.

Noor Nazzal is a trainee at Gulf News