Huge exercise to improve education in public schools

Thousands of public school teachers will undergo further training to improve their methods of teaching, a senior official said. About 11,000 public school teachers will be evaluated to determine if they need training, as many areas in the eduction system need improvement, a senior official said. The availability of financial resources for training public school teachers, and decisions on whether these educators need leave to seek further training are now being determined based on a teacher evaluation process begun last year, a senior official told Gulf News. Communication While last year's results have revealed areas for improvement, the evaluation process has been fine-tuned this year so that educators' performances can be more accurately reflected and future professional development programmes better planned, said Dr Ala'a Al Deen Ali, manager of the information management division at the Abu Dhabi Education Council's (Adec) office of strategic affairs. "The 2010 evaluations showed that public school educators can work further to improve communication with parents and guardians, as well to improve their English proficiency for subjects like English and Math. "This year, we are hoping to find out even more specific details about how both teachers and principals are performing in their respective roles," Dr Ali told Gulf News. The evaluations will be conducted twice within the 2011-2012 academic year for 10,647 public school teachers across the emirate of Abu Dhabi. The performances of nearly 268 principals, 350 vice-principals and 140 faculty heads will also be assessed. Phases In a statement sent recently, Dr Mugheer Al Khaili, director general at the Adec, said the evaluations "provide an understanding of performance quality at various school levels, as well as an idea of the council's progress towards its strategic goals". "The stress is not on ‘punishing' educators but on pointing out room for further development," Dr Ali said. For teachers, the first phase that will be carried out by February involves a preliminary check via classroom observations and compiled student performance scores. These results will then be followed up with a second round of evaluations by the end of the academic year in May.