Art, music classes in Abu Dhabi public schools

Abu Dhabi - Abu Dhabi Education Council to revamp grade 9 to 12 syllabi soon

Fine arts and music will be introduced in public schools soon. The Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) is gearing up to restructure education experience for grades 9 to 12 in 251 public schools and part of the changes are art and music in schools.
"Activities such as health, sport, life skills, arts and music in schools have been revised because they affect the students' personalities and we want our graduates to have the right level of experience, and be the right personality when finishing school," said Dr Karima Al Mazrouei, Acting Executive Director of Adec's P12 (grade 12) schools.
"We are not introducing arts and music to grade nine and above. It would be difficult for students to adapt, especially for those who didn't take music and arts in earlier years," she added.
According to Al Mazrouei, Adec will announce "soon" when the new subjects will be added to weekly activities in school.
The council began re-modelling public schools education since 2010, through the Abu Dhabi School Model (ADSM), in three cycles.
The first cycle was up to grade five, the second cycle was grade six to eight and, from this academic year, the third cycle will include grade nine, up to grade 12.
The model is far more student-centred, where modern, interactive methods of teaching apply. Subjects such as arts, music and literature have been proven to develop imagination and creativity, which are key skills not only in liberal subjects, but in innovation and science too.
"In recent years Abu Dhabi has been investing a lot in arts and culture. There are new museums about to open, there are art exhibitions, music festivals, we have an orchestra... We have to align our students' education to the interests and developments of UAE," said Al Mazrouei.
For this academic year Adec has hired 800 public school teachers and some of them specialise in arts and music. Those employed to teach these specific subjects also had to go through a week long workshop in August with Abu Dhabi based artists, to familiarise themselves with the arts and cultural scene and history of the emirate.
silvia@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi