Chapter 2: Relevant Literature
2.15 Educational Changes in Abu Dhabi
2.15.1 School Changes at a Macro Level
When considering the scope of the education system from a macro level, three primary entities address education reform in the UAE. The Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) which was previously known as the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE).
The directive of these public sector entities is based in the various federal strategies announced by the government in the UAE. In order to record the development of the education sector, a list was created to capture important events that reflect the development of the public education sector in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in general.
In 2005, an educational authority for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, known as ADEC, was established to preside over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Al Ain City and the Al-Dhafrah Region towns. ADEC’s first project was the launch of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in 2006, which started with 30 public kindergartens and primary schools.
In 2008, ADEC took over the role of the UAE MoE and developed into the supervising body of the Abu Dhabi Educational Zone (ADEZ) and developed the Abu
Dhabi Educational Policy Agenda, then followed by the Future Schools Project. In 2009, ADEC collaborated with Musanada to improve the infrastructure of education in the emirate. Also, during 2009, the UAE participated in PISA for the first time, through Dubai’s involvement.
In 2010, ADEC succeeded in introducing the NSM into the Abu Dhabi government primary schools for Grades 1-3 and KG (and expanded it to the next consecutive grade every consequent year). The NSM promoted a student-centered learning approach within modern teaching facilities, in an innovative and technology- rich environment. After launching the ‘UAE Vision 2021’ in 2010, they presented a strategic plan to elevate Abu Dhabi’s higher education system to international standards. The ‘UAE Vision 2021’ also emphasized the development of an innovation- based, knowledge-producing society, and it issued a policy that grants access to high- quality education in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, for all school-aged children.
In 2011, a vision was set for 2021, with a goal that was set to diversify the knowledge-based economy by focusing on mutually beneficial partnerships. This was followed by a new vision for 2030 named the “Abu Dhabi Education Reform: The Road to 2030”, which places education as a top priority on the agenda of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030.
In 2012, ADEC launched programs such as Irtiqa’a, for inspecting, monitoring and benchmarking the performance quality in Abu Dhabi schools (Al-Mashhadany, 2012). The Enterprise Student Information System (eSIS) was introduced the following year in 2013.
In 2014, an extension to the UAE Vision 2021 was launched regarding UAE National Agenda, placing education as one of the national priorities in the UAE Vision
2021, both explicitly and implicitly using the highest federal budget allocation of 21%
of the 2014 federal budget.
In 2015, the Emirates Foundation for Schools was created to manage all public schools in the UAE that that followed a range of new procedures. These procedures are: to eliminate the foundation year at the university level and to develop subjects at the secondary school level to be equal to university requirements; make teaching a more appealing option, with career progression and incentives; create a licensing system, similar to what is found in Western countries, for those who desire to become teachers; create a new system for assessing and ranking universities; introduce assessments of education performance at nurseries; and eliminate the requirement for students to choose between science and arts streams early in secondary school.
In 2015, KHDA introduced the UAE National Agenda Parameter, which mandates all schools to enter in international and external benchmarking assessments annually, in addition to TIMSS and PISA, and use them to gauge their advancement in meeting their individual UAE National Agenda targets. Also in 2015, ADEC launched the “My Identity” Programme which sought to reinforce the sense of national identity among Emirati students. The “My Identity” Programme aims to instill ethical values in the education system to guarantee curricula do not cover any insinuations or indications of discrimination, violence or hate
In 2016, the UAE Reading Year was declared; this involved the issuance of directives to begin preparing an integrated national literacy strategy and a framework to introduce a reading generation and establish the UAE as the capital of cultural and knowledge content. The National Law of Reading was enacted as part of the National Policy for Reading in the UAE. Key elements of the initiatives under this policy
included alterations to the educational system, curricula and the assessment of schools and institutions of higher education to address the imbalance in the decline of reading rates.
Additionally, in 2016, the Ministries of Education and Higher Education were combined. The MoE supervises all levels of learning, from nurseries to higher education. A higher council of education and human resources was formed. The Emirates Foundation for Schools was also declared as the governing body to manage public schools and give it the authority and autonomy to run all public schools.
Emirates Foundation for Schools is run by an independent board of directors and is responsible for achieving national targets in education.
Furthermore, in 2016, the MoE designed a new Physical and Health Education curriculum to meet the individual requirements of each student. It was applied in all government schools from January 2017. The objective is to empower young Emirati students to take ownership of their physical education, health and wellbeing to ensure a future generation of healthy, motivated, highly educated Emiratis.
In 2016, the Moral Education Initiative was introduced to school curricula as part of a directive from Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
The initiative aims to instill ethical values among UAE school students and to endorse concepts of tolerance, respect and community participation. In addition, new textbooks to support the revised curriculum were distributed in public schools in the UAE.
In 2017, the MoE outlined a new strategic plan to create an innovative Education System for a knowledgeable and globally competitive society. The initiative set out to ensure the quality of the MoE outputs, and provision of the best services for internal and external customers to include all age groups for meeting future labor
market demands. To ensure this, a merging of the three primary entities that address education reform in the UAE (ADEC, KHDA, and MoE) took place in August 2017, leading to great ambiguity in the education sector in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain.
Subsequent to the merger, ADEK replaced ADEC in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, according to a decree issued by the president of the UAE as a government department to continue its efforts to pursue development and improve government performance in Abu Dhabi. When considering the ideological path of education policy and the reform process in the government schools, it is necessary to determine the perspectives of those working in the education sector because of a loss of clarity, turbulent and unsettled situation during the year of the merger.
At the micro-level, the Emirati School Model as a new educational system was announced in Sep 2017, to unify sectors across the UAE and to raise the standards of teaching and learning in all public and private schools offering the Ministry of Education curriculum. It ensures a rich curriculum, excellence in course material and taught skills, and a unified vision that meets the expectations of the UAE leadership (Burton & Warner, 2017).