Dubai's education authority, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), announced the results of inspection of all private schools in Dubai Monday.
The report is based on the inspection of 136 private schools between October 2010 and April 2011 by the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) at KHDA.
With over 187,905 students attending these schools, they account for more than 86 per cent of Dubai's student population.
Six schools were ranked as outstanding, 49 schools as good; 65 schools as acceptable and 16 schools as unsatisfactory.
Dubai: Six out of 136 private schools in Dubai were ranked as outstanding by the emirate's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) on Monday, based on inspections of schools this academic year.
The schools ranked outstanding for 2010-11 are Dubai College, Jumeirah College, Jumeirah English Speaking School, Jumeirah Primary School, GEMS Wellington International School and Kings Dubai School.
Click here for the full KHDA report
A report based on the inspection of the schools by the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau at KHDA, between October 2010 and April 2011, was released yesterday.
The full list of schools and their individual performances, however, will only be published this morning.
Forty-nine schools were rated as good, 85 as acceptable while 16 were deemed unsatisfactory. With over 187,905 children enrolled in the 136 private schools, they account for more than 86 per cent of Dubai's student population.
Initiated in 2008 by the KHDA, the inspections programme seems to be working for schools, with a marked improvement in their performance.
The number of private schools which secured an outstanding rating is up from two schools last year and four the previous year.
Among these schools, 51 follow the UK curriculum, 31 US curriculum, 21 Indian curriculums, 15 Ministry of Education curriculum, 6 International Baccalaureate (IB) and 12 follow other curricula such as French, Pakistani, Filipino, Japanese, Russian and German.
Students benefited
Interestingly, over the three years that the inspections have been conducted, all the private schools rated outstanding have been UK curriculum schools. The reason is the presence of a higher number of schools following the UK curriculum, officials said.
"Almost 44 per cent of the children in Dubai's private schools, 82,360 out of 187,950 children, are now going to schools rated good or outstanding, which shows a significant improvement in the city's education landscape," Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Director-General of KHDA, said.
"As compared to last year, 20,000 more children are now at schools rated good or outstanding."
As many as 19 schools improved their rankings from last year.
Inspection bureau chief Jameela Al Muhairi said: "We can see a trend towards a healthier education system in Dubai."
Overall improvement
She said that overall improvement in levels of achievement in English, Mathematics and Science were seen this year, along with improvements in the quality of teaching, learning and also in self-evaluation.
"Leadership has improved, as have arrangements schools make for the protection of their students but teaching of Arabic still needs improvement."
Six outstanding private schools
- Dubai College, Jumeirah College, Jumeirah English Speaking School, Jumeirah Primary School, GEMS Wellington International School and Kings Dubai School.
Six outstanding public schools among 80 in Dubai
- Six schools out of a total of 80 public schools in Dubai were also ranked as outstanding by KHDA yesterday. The full inspection report of public schools, however, is scheduled to be released only later this year.
- The six public schools ranked outstanding are: Al Bara'ah Kindergarten, Al Manhal Kindergarten, Al Nokhbah Model School, Al Qeyam Model School, Childhood Development Centre, Kindergarten; Umm Suqeim Primary School.
School inspection results for the previous year
- For the academic year 2009-2010, 209 schools were inspected by the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB).
- Five schools were rated as outstanding, 73 were classified good, 106 acceptable, and 25 as unsatisfactory.
- Breaking those figures down into public and private schools, the categories are:
- Public: 3 outstanding, 30 good, 37 acceptable, and 8 unsatisfactory. Total: 78
- Private: 2 outstanding, 43 good; 69 acceptable, and 17 unsatisfactory. Total: 131
