Job Discussion Forums

[nomad soul]

UAE a leader in English education
By Roberta Pennington, The National | August 16, 2015
Source: http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-a-leader-in-english-education

DUBAI // The UAE has the highest number of English medium international schools – institutions where the language of instruction is English – in the world, according to the UK-based International School Consultancy (ISC). In countries where English is not the official language, the UAE has 511 English medium schools, ahead of China (480), Pakistan (439), India (411) and Saudi Arabia (245).

“What many consulting groups are saying is that the two most attractive industries in the UAE for investors are education and health care,” said Alison Burrows, managing director and co-founder of the KDSL Education consultancy firm. Population-growth projections released by the Government were helping fuel a “massive race” to open schools, she said.

Projected private school enrolment figures released in the Abu Dhabi Education Council’s Private School and Quality Assurance Sector Annual Report forecast a 7 per cent annual growth in school population, with a demand for 283,798 places in 2021. In Dubai, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority expected the long-term enrolment growth to be about 8 per cent per year.

“The demand is high even though perhaps things are slowing down a little bit from the expat side with the oil price fall,” said James Swallow, commercial director of the PRO Partner Group, which helps investors open schools and other institutions in the country. “There’s still a really high demand to get kids into the FS1 and the foundation levels of school and everyone is looking for the British curriculum. The British international curriculum tends to be the sweet spot.”

Lyn Soppelsa, director of consultancy services for WhichSchoolAdvisor.com, an online guide to private schools in the UAE, said English medium schools were a basic requirement for the country. “It would be unlikely families would come to the UAE if there were no private schools,” she said. “The more able a country is in addressing the need, the more easily it will be able to bring in the best and brightest from around the world.” Mrs Soppelsa said cities around the world were “competing for labour and expertise”, as quality schooling was one of the first things expatriates looked for.

The growth of English-medium schooling, however, is not without consequences. Education regulators across the UAE have expressed concern over the effect on Arabic-language skills as more Emiratis choose to enrol their children in English-speaking schools. “I don’t have a rosy picture to paint for you regarding some of these consequences,” Mrs Burrows said. “A lot of the teaching in these private schools of Arabic social studies, which is basically the history of Arabia, the Gulf region in particular, is left in the hands of teachers who aren’t from the region. They don’t know the history and don’t have a cultural relationship to the history. What we’re finding is local students here do not have adequate information about the past of their very own country.”

The study was published by ISC Research, which will be presenting more of its findings at the International and Private Schools Education Forum in Dubai next month.

(End of article)

[D. Merit]

Well that seems like a pretty skillfully managed exercise in telling the people with the cash what they want to hear.

Super!

[Geronimo]

For TEFL teachers, such as myself, based in the UAE,
the "UAE a leader in English Education" article paints
one part of the 'TEFL-in-the-UAE' picture only.

If we look at the table of IELTS results by country of origin for 2014,
where do we find the UAE?
At the very bottom of that table!
http://www.ielts.org/researchers/analysis_of_test_data/percentile_ranks_2013-1.aspx
The IELTS part of this picture is very gloomy indeed!

Almost half of the U.A.E.-based Academic IELTS candidates - 49% - failed to reach Band 5.0 or above.
Compare that figure to the one for Japan - just 9% -
and the scale of the disaster soon becomes clear.

How can we explain this dreadful outcome?$

Whilst it is unsurprising that Arabic speakers find the task of acquiring English more difficult
than those candidates speaking more closely related languages such as German, ( who all scored Band 5.5 or above in the Academic IELTS exams last year ),
I find the fact that candidates from the U.A.E scored way below
those from Qatar, Oman and Egypt much more difficult to explain away.

Is the explanation to be found in the teaching resources applied?
In the nature of the learning environment?
The calibre of the teachers?
I don't think so.

Emiratis may be able to more readily afford to re-take the test too soon
and thus repeat disappointing scores than their counterparts based in poorer countries, such as Egypt.
However, the equivalent figure for Qatar-based candidates is 33%- and for Oman -29%... way below 49%.
And note that the figure for scores below Band 5.0 for candidates from Egypt is only 5%.

The discrepancy is so great that a more fundamental factor must be responsible.

Is it time for a more holistic approach
( http://www.boastl.com/content/what-do-you-mean-holistic-approach )
to IELTS training in the U.A.E.?


Geronimo

[veiledsentiments]

Are these the scores for students who have gone overseas for the testing? Or is it for all students who take it anywhere in the world? Does it include the numbers for institutions like HCT that does in-house testing?

I'm wondering if it is indicative of Emirati students that are taking the exam to go directly for study in the UK. We all now how woefully they tend to be prepared from secondary school.

VS

[nomad soul]

It's interesting that some have perceived the article to be about Emiratis' English language proficiency when it actually refers to the number of English medium schools that native and non-native children attend.

[Geronimo]

During the last few years I've interviewed scores of Emiratis aged between 15 and 18,
i.e. High School students, for placement on ADVETI schemes.
Their performance levels in these interviews has ranged from
Band 2.0 to Band 6.0 in IELTS terms. Sometimes the contrast from one interviewee to the next has been very stark.

Generally, the most fluent ones have been attending schools where English is the medium of instruction.
Wouldn't it be surprising if that wasn't the case?
So, of course, nomad soul, the preponderance of English as a medium of instruction schools in the U.A.E.
has a bearing on the proficiency level of Emirati school students. The two are interlinked.

A report on Emirati school selection up to 2011/12 shows that:

"The increase in numbers of Emirati students in private schools over the last ten years has stemmed
from a general increase in the population of school-age Emirati children, as well as a growing trend for
Emiratis to choose private schools over public schools (Kenaid, 2011). In 2011/12 there were 29,752
Emirati students enrolled in private schools, a 2.7% increase from 2010/11 (KHDA, 2012a). More than
half of Emirati students currently attend private schools, as shown in Figure 2. Over the last ten years, the
proportion of Emirati students in private schools has grown from 34% to 56%. The trend towards private
school preference has stabilised in the last four years, during which the proportion of Emirati students in
private schools has consistently been between 56% and 57% (KHDA, 2012a)..."

And:

"The distribution of Emirati students across private schools is not even. Figure 5 shows that data from
the private schools census indicate that 65% of Emirati students attend US curriculum schools, with 15%
attending UK curriculum schools and another 15% attending schools following the MoE curriculum...."

Also, from pages 46 and 47 of this report:-

"Data for the year 2010 show that 2,180 Emirati students in Dubai took the CEPA assessment: 1,279 from public
schools and 901 from private schools. Figure 17 shows that, on average, Emirati students in UK and US curriculum
schools achieved better CEPA results than students in public MoE, private MoE and IAT curriculum schools.
Out of 2,180 students, 568 obtained more than the required score of 180 points. 76% of Emiratis who attended
UK-curriculum schools and 59% of those in the US curriculum schools attained this level. This contrasts with a figure of 9% for those in private MoE schools..."

http://www.khda.gov.ae/CMS/WebParts/TextEditor/Documents/Emiratis%20in%20Dubai%20Private%20Education%20_EN%2031-10-2012%20(2).pdf

Viewed from afar, the heading "UAE a leader in English Education"
could lead to mistaken assumptions on the part of prospective applicants for TEFL posts in the U.A.E.
regarding the likely proficiency levels of their potential students.


In response to VS's queries about the interpretation of the statistics presented by the IELTS.org researchers;
all IELTS candidates have to complete a standard application form, irrespective of the location of their test centre.
Page 2 of that application form requires them to divulge their "country of nationality" and their
"First language"....
http://www.ielts.org/pdf/IELTS%20application%20form-2015.pdf

Geronimo