Dubai: Indian schools in Dubai have been rated mostly ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’, with two out of a total of 30 inspected schools deemed ‘outstanding’, while four have been found ‘weak’ this school year.
Click here to see the school ratings
The findings were announced by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) on Wednesday. There are 33 Indian schools in Dubai, and 30 of them were inspected in the current 2016-17 academic year.
The Dubai School Inspection Bureau of the KHDA noted three schools were ‘very good’, 10 were ‘good’, while 11 were ‘acceptable’. None of the Indian curriculum schools was rated ‘very weak’.
The inspection results mean 65 per cent or more than 10,000 students are attending Indian schools rated ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’ this school year. It shows an upward journey since inspections began in 2009, when only 45 per cent of Indian schools were ‘good’ or ‘acceptable’.
Click here for the full report of school inspections
Another highlight was that over half of all Indian curriculum schools — 54 per cent — meet or exceed National Agenda expectations. Also, the performance of students attending Indian curriculum schools has improved significantly in international assessments. In TIMSS 2015, Indian curriculum schools in Dubai have been ranked the highest performing curriculum in grade 4 science, and second-highest performing curriculum in grade 4 mathematics.
Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Director-General of KHDA, said, “We are continuing to see improvements in leadership in Indian curriculum schools which will have a significant impact as we work towards achieving UAE National Agenda goals. Moving forward, the schools will work together and collaborate by sharing expertise to enable a better quality of education for every student in Dubai.”
To give all schools every chance of improving, the KHDA also introduced the Abundance initiative last year, which is a mutually beneficial alliance of schools committed to sharing knowledge and practices with others in Dubai.
Ashok Kumar of The Indian High School said collaborations with other schools has been a key pillar in the school’s ‘outstanding’ rating for the sixth straight year.
“In the act of giving back to other schools, we also learn from them. Our teachers feel refreshed. We’re partnering with 14 other schools in training and sharing best practices. I also think the support from our school governors and the management — the teamwork we have — has led to the passion for education at our school,” Kumar added.
GEMS Modern Academy is the only other ‘outstanding’ Indian school this academic year.
Nargish Khambatta, principal of GEMS Modern Academy, said: “This year, the KHDA floated the idea of ‘outstanding’ and ‘very good’ schools opting for the Abundance culture, which was more than welcome. We at GEMS Modern Academy have always nurtured a community of learners and continuously transformed ourselves over the years. The inspection results are the efforts of distributed leadership, where our staff take the ownership of various projects that they head. The involvement of our students in the planning stages has boosted their leadership capability followed by the introduction of the Class Council system across the school, which has further led to a more meaningful parent engagement …”
New this year, every parent in Dubai’s Indian curriculum schools received a report on their child’s school in an email sent by the Director-General of KHDA. The full report is available at http://www.khda.gov.ae/en/publications.
