The UAE Centennial Plan 2071 outlines clear future visions and priorities for the country, placing human capital development as one of the core pillars towards realizing its aspirations. The Plan highlights the importance of educational excellence and focuses on incorporating advanced science and technology, space science, engineering, innovation and health sciences. It also includes educational measures to teach students mechanisms for discovering their individual talents early on and for educational institutions to transform into international research centers and become incubators of entrepreneurship and innovation.
The Education and Human Resources Council has prioritized quality of education on its agenda and considers an education system that is staffed with highly trained teachers a key enabler to achieving the UAE’s objectives in preparing a future-ready society.
Conversely, the recent data shared by member entities regarding quality of teacher in the UAE have raised alarming concerns amongst Council members.
Findings 1:
Around 38,000 applicants sat for the Ministry of Education’s teacher licensing exam, of which only 15% passed both the subject-specific and pedagogy sections :
Findings 2:
OECD’s PISA scores of 15 year old public and private students in the UAE has not shown improvement since 2009. In 2018, UAE ranked 46th in PISA which is far from the country’s target of achieving top 20 worldwide by 2021.
Part 1 Questions: Please propose an independent perspective to the Education and Human Resources Council that would enhance public policies around teacher quality in the country based on these findings.
1. Propose 1-2 policy changes for the UAE to improve teacher quality.
a. Include the information you have used to reinforce your assessment
b. Please show your approach towards diagnosing the issue as well as formulating the solution
2. What additional information you would propose for the future to strengthen your proposal?
Part 2 Question:
1. Please propose an independent perspective on how the policy to improve teacher quality (or any other policy related to education and human resources) should be evaluated by the Education and Human Resources Council once received, what criteria would you use to evaluate this policy before having it endorsed by the Council?
