Ratings for Dubai schools get mixed reactions from expats

John Stead and family moved to Dubai four weeks ago and their son is enrolled in Grade 7 in Jumeirah College. Despite the British curriculum school receiving an unfavourable rating in the latest round of school inspections, the British family believes it provides quality education.

"It is unfortunate that an outstanding school like

Jumeirah College is downgraded only because their Arabic is not up to the mark. I do agree that Arabic should be given due importance in this country, but not up to the extent where a school has to be downgraded in its ratings," said Stead, a Documentation Manager.

The school that was rated as ‘Outstanding' in the last year's inspection slipped a grade this year to ‘Good' when the education authority published the full 20-page report.

The school along with two other schools — Jumeirah English Speaking School and Jumeirah English Speaking School (Arabian Ranches Branch) failed to retain its top slot as inspectors assessed students' progress and attainment in Arabic as unsatisfactory.

As an expatriate, Stead attaches more importance to the school providing top class IGCSE education. "French, Spanish and German are definitely more important than Arabic for us," said the British parent.

Fellow Briton Orietta Subrizi, a Grade 13 student of Jumeirah College, says: "The school must improve its Arabic teaching. The rating is not very important to me because nothing is changed by that. The teaching is good, the infrastructure remains the same. The school is top class no matter what rating it has got."

Inspection criteria

The KHDA announced new inspection criteria for schools last September by raising the bar on Arabic and Islamic studies as key subjects, which many schools failed to meet. A total of 25 schools slipped down a rank and 133 schools showed not enough progress to improve their ranking.

Over two-thirds of the 209 schools were inspected this year on seven key criteria. The Dubai schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) visited schools between October 2009 and March 2010 and rated five schools ‘outstanding', 73 ‘good', 106 ‘acceptable' and 25 ‘unsatisfactory'.

Abdullah Al Karam, chairman of the board and Director General of KHDA, said: "The inspections have given us a baseline to assess schools. Schools have taken a step forward to raise their standards in all aspects and parents will benefit ultimately. But we will keep the pressure on schools that show no sign of improvement."

Susan James, an American mother of two, said her close friend who is moving to Dubai in August is scrutinising the school reports before she makes a choice.

"We parents will have our own idea of what a good school is, but it is definitely beneficial to have an authority pass the verdict," said Susan, whose daughter is studying in the Dubai American Academy, which is rated ‘good'.

A.H. is considering pulling his daughter out of the school that was again rated ‘unsatisfactory'. "Last year, the school had promised us that they are implementing the recommendations made by the KHDA inspectors. But we see no improvement," he said.

Source: Gulfnews