Abu Dhabi: Pupils in public schools in the capital have demonstrated improved knowledge in all subjects tested as part of the annual External Measurement of Student Achievement (ESMA), the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) announced.
In a statement sent on Thursday, they confirmed the annual tests, conducted by the Adec this year in March, assessed the knowledge of public schoolchildren enrolled in Grades 3 to 12 in Arabic, English and Math.
Pupils in Grades 3 to 9 were also tested in Science.
The tests were then scored and analysed by an independent third party.
Arabic language reading skills were noticeably improved among pupils in Grades 3 to 8, as well as those in Grade 10. There was also a developmental progression from Grades 3 to 5 among pupils, with pupils in higher grades able to deal with more complex Arabic reading tasks.
Improvements were also noted in knowledge of the English language. While writing skills were improved across all grades, pupils enrolled in Grades 3 to 7 this year did better in writing tasks than pupils enrolled in the same grades in previous years.
The majority of pupils enrolled in Grade 6 and higher also did well this year in the Math section of the assessment, whereas pupils in Grades 5 and 6 showed significant improvements in the Science tests.
“Following the collection of these EMSA results, meetings will be held by the Adec’s curriculum division to develop suitable teaching plans for the future,” said Dr Karima Al Mazroui, curriculum division manager at the Adec.
“This year, we focussed on improving writing skills teaching for Cycle 1 (Grades 1 to 5) pupils, especially those enrolled in Grade 4 who had not been previously taught using the Adec’s interactive teaching methods,” she added.
