Schools across Dubai have been waiting for months for the Knowledge and Human Development Authority's report on the state of the emirate's private sector schools, which was finally published this week.
The KHDA would do well to speed up the processing and release of the report next year. Publishing it in May just before the long summer break leaves very little time for a school management to respond to any of the criticisms and implement the required changes before the next inspection comes around in the autumn.
This is the third year of KHDA inspections, and the educational community has started to work well with this important innovation. The principle of inspection should no longer be challenged, and the KHDA's willingness to listen to constructive criticism has brought in some useful improvements to the fledgling inspection system, which covers all schools in Dubai over 11 different curricula.
Indeed, now that it has bedded down so well, the Ministry of Education would do well to roll out a similar system across the UAE. Every parent wants to know that the school to which they are sending their children is up to standard, and it is the government's job to ensure standards are maintained, and improved.
