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Abu Dhabi / WAM
The Ministry of Education and the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), have revealed the details of a new unified education system that was announced on Sunday, as per the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the monitoring of Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
The Ministry of Education and ADEC stressed that unifying the educational system in Abu Dhabi, standardising the working model of Emirati schools, and raising the performance of the national education system will advance the country’s education sector, especially with regards to the interactive teaching of students.
They stressed that combining the national educational system aims to standardise the educational policies and procedures of the country’s public schools and generalise the model of the Emirati school, as well as to improve the performance of the education system, obtain the best possible benefits from available resources, and draft a unified national education plan.
Abdulrahman Al Hammadi, Under-Secretary for Support Services at the Ministry of Education, stated that the Ministry and ADEC have formed a joint team responsible for planning the new unified education system and agreeing upon on its details while stressing that their preparations will guarantee a smooth start for the 2017/2018 school year.
He added that unifying the education system will result in the harmonisation of the national curriculum and the ministry’s evaluations and examinations, as well as their joint efforts to achieve the best outcomes, improve the education system and identify their priorities.
He further stressed that the ministry will monitor the performance of public schools in Abu Dhabi, with the aim of ensuring that their laws, regulations and policies comply with the policies of the ministry, while ADEC will be regularly briefed on the results of the monitoring process.
He also highlighted the formation of a joint committee to discuss solutions and smart educational systems, including the management of student information and the local education system, and to consider adopting and standardising this system throughout the country while affirming their commitment to supplying school books to students for the 2017/2018 school year.
Dr. Yousif Al Sheryani, Advisor to the Director-General of ADEC, stated that the council has formed joint working teams, in co-operation with the ministry, to adopt plans that will guarantee the confident launch of the 2017/2018 school year, as well as for the transitional period, to realise the complete harmonisation of the education system during the school year. He also noted that many meetings and workshops were already held to discuss these plans and agree on the tasks and powers of both ADEC and the ministry, to unify the national education system.
He added that students will have the freedom to select their courses for higher education, but they should follow the conditions on general examinations and university acceptance, while noting that specialised subjects during Grade 12 will be excluded from the federal school system during the transitional period, and Grade 11 and below will be included in this systems starting from the 2017/2018 school year.
The main points agreed by the working teams include the teaching of the English language from nursery level up to Grade 10, and that ADEC will prepare the English language curriculum from nursery level up to Grade 12 and will provide the relevant school books. They agreed to adopt ADEC’s curriculums in the English language, mathematics and science from nursery level up to Grade 5.
They also agreed to adopt ADEC’s curriculums in technology, design and innovation, and that ADEC will provide the relevant books for Grades 1 to 3, as well as Grade 12. They further agreed to adopt the ministry’s curriculums in technology, design and innovation for other grades, and for all subjects from Grades 6 to 11, and in the Arabic language, Islamic education and social studies from nursery level up to Grade 12. The ministry will make their curriculums available in their electronic library.
Examinations will be unified for all grades in Islamic education, the Arabic language and social studies, and for each harmonisation during the transitional period. The new examination and evaluation procedures will be adopted according to relevant examination and evaluation policies, to guarantee qualitative and quantitative evaluation.