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[Gulezar]

"At the FNC, Ali Al Nuaimi (Ajman) said the foundation year was a burden on university students and their families, and accused some private companies of profiting at their expense with the tests needed to graduate from the preparatory year. 'It costs around Dh900 to sit through an exam,' he said. 'In 2012, 14,000 students had undergone those tests. So around Dh14 million had been spent on these exams in one year. This is not including those who needed to re-sit the exams. This is a lot of expense on parents.' He said the exams should be taken at secondary school, not at university. 'I ask that you consider holding these exams at secondary schools, since there are English language tests at that level anyway,' he said."

That seems to be a direct shot at IELTS. If the parents are so upset about paying 900 AED, they might encourage their children to practice and study and apply themselves to obtaining a satisfactory proficiency in English and lot just cramming. I know one student who missed his IELTS three times because he overslept each time.

I suppose that the MOE assumes that they will be able to turn the high school curriculum into IELTS Prep. Will they replace the "English language tests at that level" with IELTS or will they provide a UAE created internationally accepted standard of English proficiency?

I would not be surprised if they hired a league of Exam writers and high schools received a heads up on the exam questions and soon universities would be dumbing down their classes even more for the incompetent students being pumped out. It only takes a five year cycle before somebody at the top is calling for "standards".

[nomad soul]

On a related note...

Law planned to preserve Arabic language in the UAE
By Ola Salem, The National | November 26, 2014
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/law-planned-to-preserve-arabic-language-in-the-uae

ABU DHABI // Government plans for a law to preserve the Arabic language were confirmed at the FNC session on Tuesday. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, agreed with members’ concerns about the diminishing use of the Arabic language. Sheikh Nahyan is also head of the Arabic Language Advisory Council.

The council’s education, youth and media committee, which studied the declining use of the language and Arabic literacy skills, said a law was needed to protect the mother tongue. The committee said it wanted Arabic to be the language of instruction in state schools, and for improved teaching of it in private schools.

The law could have implications for Government universities, which mostly teach in English. A high-level schools administrator in Abu Dhabi, who was not at the session, had reservations. “What concerns me is the universities and colleges that would be forced to deliver their content in Arabic when the content was written in English and delivered by people who are not necessarily Arabic speakers,” he said. “I’m talking about engineering, architecture, law. Rather than bringing excellence you’re driving people offshore if the first language is going to be in Arabic.”

The committee also argued that classical Arabic was being replaced by local dialects among Emiratis, and that Arabic-language teachers were inadequate. The diminished use of Arabic among pupils in public and private schools showed teachers needed training and teaching methods should be revised, the committee said. It found that 18 per cent of pupils in private schools and 3 per cent in public schools were graded “less than acceptable” in Arabic in 2009, while they were excelling in English. FNC members blamed teachers and said social media was exaggerating the problem as people preferred to use English online, and media outlets were using dialects rather than classic Arabic.

The committee found that youths were using Latin characters to write in Arabic on social media sites. Faisal Al Teneiji (Ras Al Khaimah) said the problem was also present in private schools. Mr Al Teneiji presented the council with examples of pupils being taught Arabic using Latin letters.

The committee concluded that the solution was for a law to be drawn up to preserve the Arabic language, and one that would require all federal, local and private entities to use spoken and written Arabic.
It added that Arabic needed to be the official first language of education in all institutes in the country.

Sheikh Nahyan agreed to all proposals and said a law was in the works. He said the Arabic Language Advisory Council would work on all of the points raised by the FNC. “We are completely convinced that the UAE can be a model for the whole world in preserving and protecting its mother tongue,” Sheikh Nahyan said. “I hope you agree with me that teaching Arabic doesn’t mean we ignore other languages. I agree [with the FNC] that there is a need for a law to preserve the Arabic language, and ensure its use in public.”

(End of article)

[Mushkilla]

[veiledsentiments]

Of course Classical Arabic is disappearing... It is not what the vast majority of Arabic speakers use for 90+% of their lives. It should be obvious to them that it is a "foreign language" to the kids when they arrive in school. It is as if we got to Kindergarten or 1st grade and they suddenly wanted us to use Shakespearean English. (and this is completely ignoring the mix of languages used by maids, nannies, drivers, and shop clerks that are a part of these kids lives) The poor teaching is compounded by the lack of decent language teaching materials for Arabic. It is no wonder that they get to English classes and want to merely memorize and regurgitate... and think reading is something that one does out loud to practice pronunciation and phrasing. (and have no concept of reading for comprehension)

I don't have the answer to how they deal with this dilemma, but none of the Arabic speaking countries have done very well...

If they want their children to learn and use Classical Arabic, they best start using in the home... all the time.

VS

[MuscatGary]

[grahamb]

VS is right. The problem is compounded by the hands-off approach to child-raising that is unfortunately very common among parents in the Gulf states. The responsibility is often delegated to housemaids, many of whom are poorly-educated and have little knowledge of Arabic or English.

A friend of mine once asked me to teach his son English. I suggested that he do it himself, as he had a good level of English. "I wouldn't know what to say to him," he replied, adding "I don't speak much to him." Hardly encouraging.

[nomad soul]

English language ‘seducing’ UAE pupils, speaker at panel says
By Roberta Pennington, The National | December 8, 2014
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/english-language-seducing-uae-pupils-speaker-at-panel-says

DUBAI // The English language is “seducing” pupils, leaving them unable to properly speak and write in Arabic by the time they arrive at university, a conference heard on Monday.

“We have been for years telling our children you have to love the Arabic language but we don’t present that language to them in a friendly way,” Dr Lana Mamkegh, Jordan’s minister of culture, told a panel on the status of Emirati youth. “The curriculum that is being adopted is far from attractive for our children. “We can see our children are comparing between the really seductive English language and the non-attractive Arabic language because we are presenting these languages wrongly.”

Panellists at the First Knowledge Conference called for more use of Arabic in public institutions and praised the Government for putting the language high on the agenda. The FNC is planning a federal law to protect the mother tongue by making it the language of instruction in public schools.

“The problem is the UAE is a cosmopolitan society and the national population is very small,” said Dr Sulaiman Al Jassim, former Zayed University president. “That’s why we see the English language dominating in all business, in all banking. That affects radically the language in schools. Nationals take their children to private schools where they teach English and those boys and girls go to university and their Arabic language is very weak.”

The Arab Knowledge Report 2014, which was released at the forum, confirmed that language continued to be a challenge for Emiratis. “Preserving the native Arabic language in the UAE means preserving the identity of the society and culture,” says the annual report, which was conducted by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation in partnership with the UN Development Programme. The report surveyed 2,142 students from UAE University, Zayed University and the Higher Colleges of Technology. Researchers measured their skills in areas such as problem-solving, communications, technology and other skills.

When it came to their Arabic writing skills, the students’ mean score was 11.09 out of 20, indicating an “average” performance or “about the minimum required,” the report says. Only two of the students achieved a score of 20. “This is a cause for concern,” the report noted. “All of the above strongly calls for the need to work on developing the written and communication skills of young Emiratis, not only at the university level but also more essentially during their earlier fundamental stages.”

Arabic is critical to preserving and advancing Emirati culture, customs and traditions, said Kaltham Al Maged, assistant professor at the Institute for Islamic World Studies at Zayed University. “There is what you may call a linguistic conflict,” said Prof Al Maged. “Our students study English at great lengths, thus leading to English really superseding Arabic. This does pose a problem because the UAE youth may not have the language he or she requires to transfer knowledge in a proper way. So I believe we should start improving our Arabic language and teach Arabic so that we could be more successful in the transfer and localisation of knowledge.”

(End of article)

[johnslat]

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Which pretty much says it all, I think.

Regards,
John

[veiledsentiments]

Of course... let's blame the English language for our children not learning proper Academic Arabic.

They will never cure their problems - in education or anything else - until they figure out the real causes. It is not as though Emirati students arrive at university with decent English. The vast majority arrive with low elementary to high intermediate at best. Only those that attended the better International Schools - a minority - arrive with skills which can be brought up to the levels needed to study in English. (while we all pretend that the rest acheive it)

VS

[Mushkilla]

[nomad soul]

However...

Education overhaul will end two-track system in UAE public schools
By Nadeem Hanif, Ola Salem and Roberta Pennington; The National | December 9, 2014
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/education/education-overhaul-will-end-two-track-system-in-uae-public-schools

ABU DHABI // An overhaul of the education system will result in the end of the two-track science and literacy system by next year. The decades-old system, believed to have been hindering education, would be replaced with a common education track and an advanced track. The new system, which will be enacted over the next three years, aims to improve English-language.

By 2018, students would be equipped to enter universities without having to rely on foundation classes, which the Minister of Higher Education said would be abolished by that time.

The minister, Hussein Al Hammadi, said the only notable changes were the merging of the two-track system, an improvement to English classes and the introduction of new subjects. Local schools will also offer Emirates Society classes three times a week for grades one to 12 to enhance national identity.

However, FNC member Ahmed Al Shamsi (Ajman), who has scrutinised the plan, said Emiratis distrusted public school education because of frequent changes. “Each [new] minister comes and changes the old system,” he said, adding that the education ministry had the responsibility of protecting and improving on what had been done.

“Why do all our students study in private schools?” Mr Al Shamsi said. “Why are the children of those people working at the Ministry of Education in private schools?" Mr Al Shamsi said Mr Al Hammadi might also enrol his children in private schools. The minister replied that his children were in public schools. “Thank you for leading by example,” Mr Al Shamsi told Mr Al Hammadi, adding that the plan required further study by the ministry.

(End of article)

You gotta love that last paragraph!

[oilers]

The Fed Council shows why democracy would never work in a place like this (not that it works anywhere elsereally), if M Bin Rashid had to be elected Dubai would still be a pearl fishing village. What, like 1% actually vote for these morons who get elected to the FNC? Sure, let these bumpkins run the economy...

on the other hand, they do reperesent the real gut feelings of the average emirati who owns a dozen villas and business out there, the whole place will trun into musaffah or the sanaiyas when the oil runs out, imo...