Education for life

The UAE has launched a new era of federal collective performance by the different ministries under the wise leadership of both President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

This new approach is reflected in the various strategies prepared and declared by the ministries that aim at the nation's continued development.

Recently, the Ministry of Education (MoE) joined other federal entities in announcing its strategy for the coming years.

The strategy promotes the concept of Education for Life and it focuses on creating a new modern general education system based on the best international standards.

The new strategy will:

• Prepare the student for a better life;
• Improve students' ability for life-long education;
• Allow the students to be able to face the developments of globalisation, and
• Contribute to the national programmes of development.

The values that underlie the implementation of the new strategy are:

• The UAE national identity;
• Professional concepts;
• Religious principles;
• Transparency and honesty;
• Teamwork;
• Responsibility and performance evaluation;
• Quality, and life-long learning.

The strategy's practicality

The new MoE strategy will also have several effective practical actions including:

• Establishing a new public council of parents.
• Continue evaluating the exams system to implement a unique system that measures the skills of critical thinking and analysis of students who should recognise their Islamic and Arab heritage.
• Preparing the students to deal with the modern instructional technologies and be fluent in other languages in addition to the Arabic language.

The above points of the new general education strategy reflect a new approach in the UAE education development process.

However, there are some challenges that have been raised.

The challenges

First, the MoE has been claiming for long that the "student" is the centre of all its development plans, but going through the goals of the strategy (see box), six of them are not related to student concerns.

Only the second goal — curriculum development — can be connected with students. The other goals focus on the domestic situation of the ministry and the schools.

Secondly, the strategy does not include any reference to the action plans or the practical implementation process which will transform the strategy into reality.

Thirdly, the strategy does not clarify the future relationship with both education zones and the education councils after the administrative and financial independence of the Abu Dhabi Education Council and Dubai Knowledge and Human Resources Development Authority, where both of them will be fully in charge of schools in the two emirates by the new academic year.

Fourthly, the strategy does not explain the relationship with the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research nor how the MoE will prepare students during the general education for the higher education programmes in order to avoid the foundation year.

These challenges, and the questions directed at the MoE during a National Federation Council session a few months ago, need to be addressed and solutions devised to achieve the ultimate vision and goals of the general UAE Development Strategy approved by the cabinet.

— The writer is a UAE-based academic and thinker

The 7 goals

These are the aims of the new strategy, devised by the Ministry of Education, that focuses on the concept of Education for Life:

• Re-organising the structure of the ministry to establish a more effective and active educational institution. The new structure will have an active educational system managed by national experts and it will emphasise on decentralisation in its decision-making process. The new structure will define a clear relationship with the other educational settings, councils and education zones in order to develop the role of the school and make it the foundation for educational development.
• Provide modern curriculum accompanied with international academic tools to assess students
  This is to create an educational environment with the student at its centre.
• Create state-of-art technological infrastructure at all educational levels.
  This goal is based on the Future Schools project, set to begin in 50 schools throughout the UAE in the 2007-08 academic year. The MoE will, also implement, for the first time, the Accreditation System for all schools.
• Develop policies and procedures of human resources in general education.
• Develop schools and all education buildings and equip them with modern and effective instructional tools.
• Improve staff systems and development, which aims to enhance the professional skills and competencies of all staff.
• Develop appropriate methods to connect parents with the educational progress of their children.
  This goal will bridge the current gap between home and school. It will focus on providing all the educational information and statistics to interested individuals and organisations, based on the concept of "education is a key societal issue".