More school inspections help the emirate to better balance quality and quantity

As the emirate’s growing population leads to an expansion of private kindergarten-to-grade-12 (K-12) schools, education authorities have focused on maintaining a careful balance between supporting new growth and preserving a high calibre of education. Although private K-12 school inspections have been undertaken since 2008, the government’s Irtiqa’a (“Raising the Bar”) initiative in 2011-12 expanded these checks to include public schools. Although early inspections indicated much room for improvement, the process has had a positive impact on quality assurance, with the government since reporting steady progress in eight key indicators for the K-12 segment.

Demographic Pressure

Rapid population growth has placed more pressure on Abu Dhabi’s K-12 education sector, and private schools have increasingly moved to fill the gap. The Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi reported that 61.6% of the emirate’s K-12 students were enrolled in private schools during the 2012/13 academic year, the number of which grew from 181 during the 2010/11 school year to 185 in 2012/13. More recently, in September 2014 the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) announced it had granted approval for 14 new private schools to open for the 2014/15 school year, with a combined capacity of about 20,000 students – part of the council’s larger plans to launch 12 new private schools in 2015 and an additional 14 in 2016, accommodating a total of 58,000 students.

Inspections

As the number of private schools operating in Abu Dhabi has expanded, ADEC has moved to ensure that students are receiving the best quality education. In 2008 ADEC mandated that all private schools register with the council and undergo inspections managed by ADEC’s Private Schools and Quality Assurance (PSQA) sector. In 2012 ADEC’s inspection system was extended to cover public schools under the Irtiqa’a initiative. Inspectors assess eight aspects of each school’s performance based on performance standards, namely: students’ attainment and progress; students’ personal development; the quality of teaching and learning; meeting of students’ needs through the curriculum; the protection, care, guidance and support of students; the quality of the school’s buildings and premises; the school’s resources; and the effectiveness of leadership and management. Evaluation is measured on an eight-point scale, with one representing the highest possible achievement and eight the lowest. Schools are divided into three bands: A (high performing), B ( satisfactory) and C (in need of significant improvement).

The Process

The PSQA notifies schools slated to undergo inspection around 15 days in advance, after which point the lead inspector will make an initial visit to formulate a pre-inspection brief. Schools are required to submit a number of documents to the PSQA, including a self-evaluation, a prospectus, a list of teachers’ qualifications and a school improvement plan, with ADEC emphasising achievements in Arabic, English, mathematics, Islamic education, social studies, ICT and science. Schools are inspected by professional teams of international inspectors that typically spend three to four days in a school. In the course of the actual inspection, the teams use the pre-inspection brief, observation of lessons, and information from meetings with students, faculty and administrators to determine the school’s appropriate rankings.

Progress

ADEC saw much room for improvement during its first inspection cycle, with 89% of schools earning a B or C ranking. Although its second inspection cycle indicated things were moving in the right direction, it still showed that a majority of private schools in had room for improvement, as 66% of schools were ranked in band C. In May 2013 ADEC moved to improve transparency, announcing it would make the results of the second inspection cycle, which covers all private schools, publicly available for the first time.

Although the third inspection cycle is still under way, partial results are encouraging. The majority of schools now rank in bands A and B, while the number of schools in band C dropped to just 44%, a testament to the successful implementation of ADEC’s reform strategies.