A senior official yesterday criticised the UAE's educational policy, claiming it has been imported. Dr Mouzah Ghobash, a professor at the UAE University in Al Ain, said the nation does not have a "local educational policy."

She called on the authorities to draw up a strategy and avoid "importing curriculum."

She was speaking at a seminar organised by the Ras Al Khaimah Educational Zone at the emirate's Teachers Association.

She said: "The educational process is always subjected to major problems, and the educational environment is so tense that it could explode any moment.

"Educational institutions and departments have been around for a very long time, and should have matured by now, but that hasn't happened for unknown reasons.

"Dialogue is the only way solve problems facing the Ministry of Education and Youth and other departments related to education.

"The ministry's curriculum has not been instilling creativity among youngsters. Those who graduate from government schools do not understand the aim behind the education."

Dr Mouzah said the current curriculum does not give students models to follow, and hence youngsters look towards western cultures through the media and Internet.

"This is a great problem – our culture will vanish. People at the Ministry of Education and Youth come from different backgrounds and have never come to an agreement about the curriculum in government schools.

"All higher education colleges and universities are following curriculum of foreign universities. Instead of following foreign universities, UAE institutions should adopt a local curriculum, ideally suited for the country's environment."

She said one of the key mistakes of the ministry and other educational departments is recruiting non-national consultants who are asked to improve the educational process.

"These consultants are destroying the process. New consultants coming to the UAE will adopt their own strategies – everything will be changed.

"Consultants should be nationals as they know the ethos and heritage of the country. Foreign experiments should only be used for technology."

Dr Mouzah said in the 1970s many foreign ideas and principles were adopted, but it is time now to build an independent UAE, having its own character.

She stressed that the current crises facing UAE society have been created because of total dependence on the foreign experiment which does not suit UAE society.

Foreign ideas have created many social problems. She warned that the divorce rate jumped to 45 per cent last year when it was only 25 per cent in 1990.

Women in three out of five national families are depressed because men have married other women.

Dr Mouzah said Sharjah's decision to allow women to enter the Consultative Council is a leading idea which should be followed.

She said it is the time for UAE society to have its own identity instead of imitating others. "Before adopting strategies, there should be a general referendum so that UAE society becomes really independent and free," Dr Mouzah added.