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Ministry divides grade 10 students between advanced and general level
By Noor Nazzal, Gulf News | November 4, 2014
Source: http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/education/ministry-divides-grade-10-students-between-advanced-and-general-level-1.1408158

DUBAI--Starting next year, grade 10 students who go to public schools will be divided based on their performance into either an advanced level or a general level, the Ministry of Education has announced. Hussain Ebrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, revealed the details of the ministry’s educational 2015-2021 plan, which His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, approved last month and ordered to be implemented quickly.

Among the goals of the 2015-2021 plan is dividing students based on their performance into general and advanced streams in order to achieve better educational outcomes that suit the requirements of UAE’s knowledge economy. The report revealed by the ministry said the students will go either to the advanced level or the general level based on their performance in grade nine. The ministry will also implement an educational system that will encourage students to join the advanced stream.

This move comes after the ministry decided to cancel the arts and science stream in public schools and make basic science and art subjects mandatory for all students. In addition to the core subjects students will have electives to choose from to help them decide on their university major. The ministry will keep the arts and science stream for grade 12 for the academic year 2015-2016, but it will implement the advanced and general levels for grade 10 and 11 students in the 2015-16 academic year.

The ministry’s plan also aims to develop and maintain the Arabic language as well as coordinate with higher education institution to make sure students’ high school education outcomes meet the standards of the country’s universities. By fulfilling these goals the ministry hopes to make sure that its students are qualified to receive direct acceptance in engineering, medical and science university courses in the country and abroad.

The 2015-2021 plans will focus on strengthening the national identity of students by developing the content of social studies to include all grades. It will also develop the English language’s curriculum in all levels to meet the requirements of global companies and organisations in the country and abroad. The ministry will focus on developing students’ research capabilities and develop students’ health science subjects and life skills subject according to the plan.

In order to fulfil these goals the ministry’s plan said schools and educators should be equipped. The ministry will also need to attract a qualified local workforce and develop all curriculums. The developed curriculums will be implemented in grades one, four, seven and 10 during the 2015-16 academic year. Grades two, five, eight and 11 will have the developed curriculum implemented in 2016-17 and grades three, six, nine, 12 will have it implemented in 2018-19.

The ministry plans on measuring the outcomes of these new changes by measuring them through unified evaluations, making a group of its students take part in international assessment tests and using the higher education institutes’ requirements and standards as a reference for formulation of the secondary phase. It will also upgrade and develop national evaluations targeting core subjects to allow decision makers, those in the educational sector and the UAE society as a whole to have access to information that reflect students’ educational standards. These national evaluations will be implemented in the following grades: three, five, nine and 10, in the first phase before including all classes.

When Shaikh Mohammad approved the plan last month he ordered its quick implementation, stressing the importance of developing the educational system in the UAE as part of a wider concept which uses modern science as a basis to drive innovation in the education sector. Through the use of innovative methods and tools he said the primary goals of the National Agenda 2021 will be achieved.

(End of article)

[rdobbs98]

Well if it is a public school, government, there won't be any advanced students.