It is a given that everyone wants quality education for their children and the UAE’s governments at federal and emirate level want to encourage their young people to grow up with the best schooling available so that they can contribute their best to the social and business life of the country. The many expatriate families resident in the UAE share this aim and like to support the drive for quality. This is why Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has done well to publish regular statistics on the performance of schools in the emirate and by so doing, it has forced all school managements to recognise that they have to be part of the wider UAE community. It is no longer possible for the unspoken collusion between parents and school faculties to ignore subjects like Arabic or Islamic Studies, even if it has been very difficult to find quality teachers.
The most recent report from the KHDA showed standards to be rising overall, although it singled out schools following the British and International Baccalaureate curriculums to have better results than schools following the Indian and American curriculums, while the Ministry of Education schools did not do well at all. In the multi-cultural environment of Dubai, it is important that all schools work hard to offer their best in mainstream subjects like mathematics and sciences, as well as those subjects that bring young people in the emirate towards a closer understanding of the UAE.
