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Schools improve their grades

Three Indian schools, rated only acceptable last year, made it to the ‘Good’ grade in this year, as Dubai’s education authority released its school inspection report on Monday. A school that started only last year also received ‘Good’ rating.

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Twenty-four principals from Indian and Pakistani schools in the emirate waited anxiously for the announcement of the annual inspection report.

With a total of 61,644 students enrolled in these schools, the 23-page inspection report presents key information about the quality of education, as collected by school inspectors who individually visit every school and attend classes.

Unveiling the report, Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), said, “This is the second report for the Indian and Pakistani schools and is a reflection of the seriousness among the people involved in educating children. The inspection process is fairly new and it is getting better and better with the feedback from parents and teachers.”

Eleven schools were categorised good; seven acceptable; and three remained unsatisfactory.

Jameela Al Muhairi, Chief, Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB), highlighted the importance of the inspection results.

“With the inspection report, parents are making informed choices and in a year’s time, if the commitment to change remains, we can see some Indian schools attain the ‘outstanding’ status,” said Jameela.

With no outstanding school this year, the highest rating received by a couple of Indian schools was ‘Good with Outstanding features’.

Indian High School, Dubai was among the top performing schools. Ashok Kumar, CEO, Indian High School cited the commitment of governors, systematic approach of school heads and focus on improvement as a reason for the school’s good rating.

“The school inspection report helps us improve our school and provides an action plan for us to perform better in the future. Providing quality education to close to 10, 000 students of the Indian community, at an affordable cost, we are glad to receive the highest rating ,” said Ashok Kumar.

Darryl Bloud, Principal of Dubai Modern High School, however, expressed disappointment with the latest ratings, though the school was amongst the top rated schools with a rating of ‘Good with Outstanding features’.

“Every school has its own infrastructure and challenges. I am disappointed with the ratings as the teaching and learning at our school has been endorsed by parents as being outstanding. The inspections which last over five days do not provide inspectors with sufficient time to evaluate the school completely,” said Bloud.

“I strongly believe that our school should have received an outstanding status and we have provided feedback to DSIB and asked them to review the inspection cycle,” he said.

Three schools improved their rating over the last one year from being acceptable to good. Our Own High School, Al Warqa’a was among one of them.

“Last year, our school was rated as acceptable and we worked on the guidelines provided by KHDA. Today, our school has received the ‘good’ status and it is a reflection of the commitment to bring change in the learning environment,” said Neville de Noronha, Principal, Our Own High School, Al Warqa’a, Dubai.

The school created a parent advisory committee and worked upon an action plan to implement changes which helped the school improve its rating.

School inspection teams visit every school twice a year and attend classes, interact with teachers, parents and students while engaging with the management to assess the overall infrastructure and teaching quality in the school.

—muaz@khaleejtimes.com