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The UAE
Systems analysis of the UAE education system
education system
Eman Gaad
The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE and University of Birmingham, 291
Birmingham, UK
Mohammed Arif
The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE and
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Fentey Scott
The British University in Dubai, Dubai, UAE and University of Birmingham,
Birmingham, UK

Abstract
Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to examine the organization of the UAE educational system,
its components, their goals, and finally their effectiveness.
Design/methodology/approach – Three elements of the UAE education system were examined:
the development; delivery; and evaluation and feedback.
Findings – On analysis, it was found that there is poor alignment among what the system was
developed for, how it was delivered, and what was evaluated. In order to align this system significant
efforts are needed to ensure that extensive documentation in terms of teachers’ guides, training
sessions for teachers and supervisors, and relevant evaluation instruments must be designed with
systems thinking as the guide.
Research limitations/implications – An orientation to goals rather than textbooks, to systems
thinking, and to the vision developed for the system (and perhaps some form of strategic feedback to
the respective committees established in the structural framework delineated by the ministry) might
be worth consideration to erase the misalignment indicated by this research.
Originality/value – This paper will be of interest to those involved in education and in particular,
those involved in the education system within the UAE.
Keywords Educational administration, Educational development, Systems analysis,
United Arab Emirates
Paper type General review

Introduction
The quality of education is a topic of debate in every country, and assuring the quality
of education is a task each government finds or puts on its policy agenda. Assuring the
quality of education, however, is not a simple matter. It is a multi-faceted problem
which begins long before questions of dissatisfaction with various elements of
schooling are raised. Ministries of Education, for example, must identify the goals of
education and what will be logically emphasised within the curriculum framework International Journal of Educational
designed for students who attend schools within their jurisdiction; they must define Management
Vol. 20 No. 4, 2006
and establish the interrelationships between the goals and societal culture either pp. 291-303
implied or expressed in those goals; they must identify not just the content but the q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0951-354X
scope of the content of the curriculum, must have an understanding of the students for DOI 10.1108/09513540610665405
IJEM whom it is intended, must have a supporting structure for these processes and must
20,4 train and employ teachers and administrators to implement this within schools, and at
some time they must evaluate to see whether the curriculum is effective. But as Ancess
(2000, p. 590) says, “The improvement of schools and raising student achievement are
enduring challenges because they are confounding problems.” The weight of
experience and research (see for example, Fullan (2001), Hall and Hord (2000),
292 Lieberman and Miller (1999), Martin (2002), Goldberg (2001), Reynolds (1996)) suggests
that it has been far easier to propose new curricula or ways to implement new curricula
than it has been to accomplish their implementation, much less to achieve the
integration of all the elements mentioned above since integration requires an even
greater degree of coordination, something which seems to evade most governments.

Methodology
This paper uses a systems framework approach to examine the current UAE education
system, specifically answering the question “Is the system integrated as planned?”.
Systems thinking allows the individual to see the interconnectedness of all parts and to
understand that “changes in any part of the system will affect the other parts and the
system as a whole, sometimes favorably, and other times unfavorably. Because
educational leaders typically have not thought systematically, reform has most often
occurred in piecemeal fashion” (Sparks and Hirsh, 1997, p. 6). By using the systems
framework, we were able to concentrate both on curricular matters and also on the
issue of infrastructure development. The paper therefore examines the organization of
the educational system, its components, their goals, and finally their effectiveness. The
framework is used as a tool both for description and analysis of the system, and
interviews with people involved in implementing the system.were utilised as a means
of gaining information on the effectiveness of the system, the integration of its parts
and the environment that encompasses it. The paper begins with a brief history and
structure of education in the UAE, outlines the framework and the research hypothesis
before detailing the results of interviews with individuals at different level of
curriculum design, the delivery and evaluation processes, and finally drawing
conclusions from the assembled data.

Brief country profile

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a total area of 83,600 sq km, is located at the
southern tip of the Arabian Gulf. The neighboring countries are Saudi Arabia, Qatar
and Sultanate of Oman. It has a tropical desert climate with very little or no rainfall. It
is union comprised of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm
al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah and governed by a federal system founded on
the 2 December 1971. Abu Dhabi city is the capital of UAE.
The discovery of crude oil and its commercial production in the UAE created a new
economic situation that was reflected in the availability of substantial financial
resources on one hand, and the investment of such resources by the government for
development on the other hand. The country has emerged into the mainstream of
modernism over the past 30 years through an economy driven by oil and gas and
recently, tourism. The population has been directly influenced by the rapid
development witnessed by the country in recent years.
 The Emirates are settled by a diversity of cultural groups. In addition to the UAE The UAE
nationals, there are various Arab groups, as well as Iranians, Filipinos, Indians and education system
large numbers of Europeans and Americans. They are all known as expatriates
(expats) and make up approximately 70 percent of the population.

Current education system in the UAE

The education system of the UAE, in comparison to other countries, is relatively new. 293
The education system is divided into two groups: public and private sector. The
government funds the public sector schools. All UAE nationals have access to
mainstream public education, which is of a strong Islamic and Arabic influence. All
mainstream public education is conducted in single gender classes and no expatriates
are admitted (Gaad, 2001).
Many expatriates therefore opened private schools to meet their religious, cultural
and education needs and today both public and private sector schools operate in almost
equal numbers in the UAE. In fact, the private sector is growing faster than the public
sector as many new schools are opening. This study focuses on the public sector, and
specifically schools in Dubai.

Overview of the education system

Primary and secondary education is provided for all UAE citizens. The existing
educational structure, which was established in the early 1970s, is a four-tier system
covering 14 years of education.
.
Kindergarten – age level from: 4 to 5 years old;
.
Primary – length of programme in years: 6, age level from: 6 to 12;
.
Preparatory – length of programme in years: 3, age level from: 12 to: 15;
.
Secondary – length of programme in years: 3, age level from: 15 to: 18
Certificate/diploma awarded: Secondary School Leaving Certificate;
.
Technical Secondary School – length of programme in years: 6, age level from:
12 to: 18 Certificate/diploma awarded: Technical Secondary Diploma;
.
Primary school education is compulsory for all UAE citizens. Government policy
is to provide staff/student ratios of 1:20 at kindergarten and primary levels; and
1:15 at intermediate and secondary levels. The existing staff/student ratios are
well within this proposed range.

Vision 2020: a plan for action

Although the UAE has achieved much in the field of education, there is a real
awareness that constant updating of policy and continual investment in infrastructure
is required to ensure that graduates are properly equipped to enter the work force and
assist in the country’s development. To this end, the Ministry of Education produced a
policy document (Vision 2020) outlining a strategy for further educational development
in the UAE up to the year 2020, articulated in a number of five-year plans.Vision 2020
is based on “effective strategic planning model” (Bryson, 1995). It is not a prescriptive
vision but one that realizes the importance of continuous improvement consistent with
changing conditions both within the educational system and the needs of the society.
The vision is planned to go through an evaluation every five years and define future
steps. The four pillars of this vision are:
IJEM (1) Islamic heritage;
20,4 (2) National heritage of the UAE;
(3) the Country’s constitution; and
(4) the Country’s developmental priorities at any given time.
These four pillars are designed to form the basis of any plans or decisions developed.
294 With these principles in mind, the country’s internal environment in terms of social
needs, economic needs, strategic needs and skill sets required is assessed. This is
followed by an assessment of the external environment which includes:
.
social and demographic factors globally;
.
economic factors;
.
UAE’s foreign policy and relations; and
.
UAE’s future ambitions as far as its position in the education sector globally.
Based on both internal and external factors, skill sets required for students who will be
joining the workforce in the future are decided. This is followed by the development of
a curricular framework and guidelines that would subsequently be used in
development of textbooks and other teaching material.

UAE education system structure

This brief description of the Vision 2020 indicates a very comprehensive and
integrated system with a very intensive process of curricular development and
evaluation through the five-year reviews
As shown in Figure 1, the ministry of education is headed by a minister who has an
office that supports the administrative activities (His Highness’ office). There is one
secretary and five undersecretaries that report to him directly. There are also six
committees that perform the advisory function for him. One committee is the
undersecretaries’ committee comprised of all the undersecretaries and the secretary.
The function of this committee is to advise the minister on the strategic planning issues
of the educational system. There is also a committee on culture and science constituted
from people in the areas of science and culture at universities and industry within the
UAE. The function of this committee is to develop an overall strategic vision for the
position of science- and culture-related issues in the educational system. Another
committee, the national committee for curriculum development, consists of academics
from both universities and schools in different subject areas, who define the high-level
curricular goals in different subjects, while the national committee for human resources
whose members are representatives from industry and academia evaluates the
availability of different skills in the country, and sets up goals for developing human
resources in different areas of needs. This is based on the direction the country is
planning to take to satisfy future economic and industrial requirements. The planning,
evaluation and development committee is responsible for integrating the views of
different committees into an integrated plan, developing implementation plans, and
metrics for evaluation. The technical office of His Highness is responsible for
developing plans and monitoring infrastructure-related issues including facilities,
buildings and computer systems. The mandate of all these committees is to develop the
high-level visions and perform the advisory the role for the minister in their respective
 The UAE
education system

295

Figure 1.
Ministry of Education
organizational structure

areas leaving the actual functional implementation to be done under the supervision of
different undersecretaries.
There is also a secretary who reports to the minister. S/he has five undersecretaries,
subject specialists (described later in detail), and head teachers reporting to him/her.
The undersecretary of programme and curriculum is responsible for keeping track of
statistics nationwide for student performance, monitoring and providing the required
resource and technology, developing evaluation criteria and performance measures,
and curriculum development for all the subjects at different levels. The undersecretary
of educational management is responsible for overseeing the condition of buildings,
educational services like libraries, facilitation and supervision of different
infrastructure developmental projects, adult education, general education and
kindergardens. The undersecretary of student activities is responsible for overseeing
counseling and guidance departments, social and public relations (PR) activities,
activities related to culture and art as well as Boy Scout and sports-related activities.
The undersecretary of vocational education is responsible for overseeing the design
and delivery of vocational education, and the undersecretary of management and
finance is responsible for overseeing all the financial functions of the educational
system. In addition, there are subject supervisors who monitor the progress of different
subjects at different levels, evaluate the teachers and provide feedback to the secretary.
The head teacher of each school reports directly to the secretary as well.
IJEM Since this research is focused on curriculum development, delivery and evaluation,
20,4 our study will concentrate on the national committee for curriculum development,
subject supervisors, head teachers, and the department headed by the undersecretary
of programme and curriculum.

Past research and research framework

296 Past researchers have analyzed the UAE education system and found that despite
adequate funding from the government the public education system is not very
effective (Shaw et al., 1995). Muhanna (1990) had noted that in the past the the dropout
rate and repetition rates are higher in the UAE than any other gulf states. A study by
Badri (1998) also points to an acute situation with attrition rates in public schools.
Hokal and Shaw (1999) have pointed to a lack of cohesion among the three elements
of UAE education system:
(1) administrative/bureaucratice system linking schools with the ministry;
(2) local school system of supervision and course delivery; and
(3) employment system that uses the products of schools.

Shaw et al. (1995) said “A central problem for Gulf States’ school systems is that while
they are administered and relatively closely supervised by the local ministries of
education, their activities do not take place within a coherent and explicit tradition of
public policy. It is only quite recently, for example, that a committee has been set up to
develop the countries’ educational policy. Of course such traditions are not created
quickly”.
This statement was made ten years ago. Figure 2 displays a vision of an integrated
system as we define it for this research.
In an integrated system, the high-level curricular goals also referred to as national
goals in the subsequent sections, are taken as guidelines for both curriculum
development and delivery. These curricular goals are developed after taking into
account religious, economic, social and any other factors that influence the present and

Figure 2.
Research system
future of the country. It is important for syllabus developers and textbook writers to The UAE
keep curricular goals in mind since these goals reflect the intended output from an education system
educational system and have to be incorporated in the curriculum. The goals are
important for the curriculum delivery also, as the teachers should be aware of both the
content they are teaching and the context in which this has to be taught. Teaching
should not be merely a textbook content delivery process; it should concentrate on
goals, and objectives of the educational system and the context within which this has 297
to be taught. Figure 2 displays a vision of an integrated system as we define it for this
research and will help us determine if the overall system is integrated or not.

Curriculum development process in the UAE

The curriculum development process starts at the national committee on curriculum
development level. This committee develops a high level vision for curriculum and
constitutes a committee for each subject to be taught at schools. This high-level
committee consists of university academics, teachers from that subject area, subject
supervisor, and one non-academic subject specialist. It determines the syllabus topics,
and learning outcomes for different class levels. This information is then passed to the
undersecretary of curriculum who supervises the development of textbooks as well as
teachers’ guides for each course for each class.
These books and teachers’ guides are then passed to the teachers who deliver the
course. Subject supervisors periodically come and sit in the classrooms to monitor the
quality of curriculum delivery and report their findings to the secretaries’ office, as well
as make recommendations to incorporate any changes they think are needed in the
curriculum.

Vision or the national goals of the UAE

General national goals for the UAE for pre-school, primary and secondary schools are
as follows:
(1) General goals for the pre-school:
.
Expansion of the care and the development of pre-school children including
family and local community and specially for those who are poor,
disadvantaged or handicapped.
.
The natural care of the child and the social, mental and physical
development within the Islamic tradition.
.
Acquire the traditions that suits his age and needs.
.
Acquire appropriate behavior that suits his age through role model.
. The development of national belonging through social and national
functions and activities in his local community.
.
Preparation for primary school and the development of willingness to be
engaged in reading and writing skills.
.
Enrichment of language proficiency through appropriate expressions related
to life and community.
.
The mental development of the child through encouraging him to research
and enquire and release his natural creativity.
IJEM .
Encouraging the child to be a decision maker and be able to express his
20,4 thoughts as well encouraging his initiatives.
(2) General goals for the primary education:
.
Generalization of comprehensive primary education by 2000. Goals for
learning for all at national level.
298 .
The development of the comprehensive personality religiously, behaviorally
and professionally and the development of Islamic traditions and faith and
educating the child in some religious commitments that suits his age.
.
Enrichment of national Arabic and Islamic responsibility and belonging to
the nation and development of cultural identity.
.
Adopting the Arabic language as a language for education and
communication with other cultures in light of Islamic culture.
.
Acquiring system, patience and effort to overcome challenges and solve
problems and acquiring knowledge that is of a quality and accuracy related
to his social life and surroundings.
.
Motivating the child to acquire knowledge and to be curious and to develop
his habit to achieve an educational balance.
.
Development of practical thinking habits that suits the child’s abilities, age
and that achieve some security and the acceptance to lives circumstances.
.
Appreciation of natural beauty and environment and awareness of the
goodness in nature and development of observation and rich imagination
and creativity. In light of the students potential.
.
Development of different skills and awareness of his rights and his
entitlements (Citizenship).
(3) Secondary:
.
To achieve the curriculum planning produced and accredited by the ministry
of education.
.
Expansion of study of foreign languages alongside the compulsory
curriculum.
.
Special curriculum for expatriate community.

An analysis of the system

In order to analyze the whole system it is important that all the major elements of the
curriculum be considered. To accomplish this, three significant groups of people were
interviewed. Teachers involved in delivering the curriculum were the first group, the
second group consisted of supervisors who are involved with evaluating the
curriculum delivery and providing input for future curriculum development, while the
undersecretary of curriculum who oversaw the development of textbooks and teacher’s
guides represented the third group.

The delivery component

The first aspect of the curriculum analyzed was the delivery. In an integrated system
the people responsible for delivering the curriculum should be aware of what is being
taught as well as why is it being taught. In other words, knowing both the content to be The UAE
delivered and the context in which it has to be delivered, is very important. education system
We used a questionnaire to interview the teachers. Questionnaire design proceeded
in an orderly and specific manner. It was very important to consider time and effort to
be invested in such procedures and also to ensure that questions were comprehensible
to participants and valid. We circulated the designed questionnaire as a pilot to test its
validity, revise it and make any necessary changes before actually administering it to 299
the teachers. A small-scale pilot study of three teachers (one primary, one English
language secondary, and one special needs class teacher in a government school) was
conducted. We realized at the end of this study that the transitions between questions
should be as smooth as possible as the subject of national goals might not be familiar
to many participants, and that wording such as “don’t you think” should be avoided.
In order to maximise representation from the teaching community so as to draw
some qualified conclusions, teachers were asked to answer our questions in a
structured manner through a face-to-face session with the interviewer. Prior to the
interview we got permission from the head teacher. Teachers were selected randomly
and were given as much time as they wanted to respond. In all, 27 teachers were
interviewed. They all were asked two questions. The first question was “Are you
aware of the national goals for the UAE education system?” and the second question
was “Are you aware of the goals of the subject you teach?” After the response the
interviewees were asked if they would like to comment on any of the questions or their
responses. That was also documented.
Results. We found that for the first question on the survey: “Are you aware of the
national goals for the UAE education system?”, out of the 27 subjects, no one was
aware of the national goals. In response to the second question about the subject goals,
only two out of 27 teachers said that they were aware of the subject goals. One of them
mentioned that she learnt about them through a teacher development workshop and
the other mentioned reading the goals of the subject in a handbook.

The evaluation component

As has been depicted in the organizational chart, the second group of interest for this
research was the subject supervisors. These supervisors evaluate the teachers for a
specific subject. In an integrated system it would be expected that teachers are
evaluated not only on knowledge and delivery but also addressing the context in which
the course has to be taught. The three subject supervisors were selected based on the
their willingness to talk to us.The interview was informal where the discussion was
guided towards finding out if the supervisors knew what were the subject goals and
what were they actually evaluating in a teacher. None of them could identify the
national goals even though two of them were aware that they existed. All three of them
had a very different perception about what are the goals of education and the
effectiveness of the national goals. One of them thought that it is the passing rate of
students that was important. The second one thought that it is open and different for
different teachers and the third one thought the sole target of the teachers is to finish
the curriculum in the available time. Parts of transcripts from their conversation with
us are:
Supervisor 1: I am responsible for the academic achievements of the repeaters and find out
why they fail to pass the examinations. In the search for reasons behind the failures I ask
IJEM teachers sometimes the failure is due to lack of study or lack of follow-up at home. Some
parents hire teachers or tutors for the children at home without knowing anything about the
20,4 treatment at school. She thinks the national goals are for each student to achieve the
benchmark set by the school and to be upgraded to the following year. So the national goals
are to achieve the 50 percent and above to be upgraded to the following year. It’s a curriculum
based common goal for science for children to study the text book. Just like any other subject.
I go and watch teachers inside classrooms to make sure that they use appropriate teaching
300 methods and classroom managements. I also look at how the teacher deals with children
inside the classroom.
Supervisor 2: For geography, this is to educate citizen should be able at the age of 7 (2nd year
primary) of pinpointing UAE on a map of the world and so on. There are always policies that
should be followed. A teacher for example should have his own philosophy that is derived,
and guided by the country’s educational philosophy.
Supervisor 3: Educational goals started right from subject goals. Teachers are fully aware
that they must finish the curriculum by the end of the year if they are not doing this they are
in deep trouble. We have a zero tolerance policy when it comes to curriculum goals. Teachers
are responsible to finish the curriculum within the year and by doing this they have achieved
the traditional educational goals. It is my responsibility to ensure that curriculum is finished
during the course of the year.
These supervisors use an instrument to evaluate teachers. The instrument is a
100-point system which is divided between different variables. The variables and their
weights (in parentheses) are as follows:
.
planning of the lecture (5);
.
knowledge of the topic (10);
.
personality of the teacher (10);
.
professional skills (25);
.
productive skills (evaluated based on survey of supervisor, head teacher,
student, parents) (20);
.
professional development (evaluated based on seminars, workshops, training
programs attended) (20); and
.
innovation in teaching (10).

As can be seen, there is no mention of effectiveness in meeting national goals or subject

goals among the criteria considered for evaluating teachers. Most of these variables are
scored with the supervisor visiting one of the classes. It is highly unlikely that one
class visit is sufficient to evaluate a teacher and determine how effectively s/he is
meeting the national goals.

The development component

The third part of analysis focused on the curriculum development. In order to get a
sense of the curriculum development process we interviewed the undersecretary of
curriculum in the ministry of education. This interview was unstructured and was
conducted after interviews with the teachers and supervisors were complete. He
described the curriculum development process that has been documented in Figure 3.
 The UAE
education system

301

Figure 3.
Curriculum development
process in the UAE

The undersecretary acknowledged that there is lack of understanding among teachers

about the national goals and why a certain topic has been included in the textbook.
However, he informed us that teachers’ guides are being developed with an objective of
educating teachers about the goals of the syllabus and the context in which topics have
to be taught. He acknowledges this aspect as follows:
I say our country is now going through an education reform. We are going through a change.
This is a culture that has to change the way it thinks about education. Teachers are working
hard. No doubts we know that what we need to redirect this effort to the benefit of the new
generation. Syllabi now are being developed little by little we have reached up to level five
and we are hoping to carry on up to general certificates of secondary education.
This was a clear indication that the ministry is aware of the lack of cohesiont between
curriculum development and delivery. However, one other issue that needs to be
considered and that the ministry has to rethink is the disconnect between the
evaluation process and development. The following section summarizes the findings of
this research.

Summary and conclusions

The school system in the UAE has been a topic of discussion in the literature for the
past decade. Being a newer system it has encountered several challenges and have
continued to progress primarily due to the generous funding from the government.
Shaw et al. (1995) had indicated incoherence in the system and had identified it as a
major area of concern. This research analyzed the coherence of the system in 2005, ten
years after the initial problem was highlighted. It focused on the coherence of the
curriculum part of the system and included three elements:
(1) curriculum development;
(2) curriculum delivery; and
(3) monitoring and evaluation.

For curriculum development, the underscretary was interviewed. He acknowledged the

discontinuity between development and delivery but also pointed out that the ministry
IJEM of education is aware of this problem and this weakness is being rectified through the
20,4 use of more comprehensive teachers’ guides and training sessions.
In the case of curriculum delivery, 27 teachers were asked if they knew what were
the national goals of the UAE education system and what were the subject goals of the
subjects they were teaching. None of the 27 teachers interviewed was aware of the
national goals and only two out of the 27 were aware of their subject goals. This brings
302 to light a very serious problem with the current system. Teachers who are teaching in
the class are concentrating on teaching the content and not the context of the subjects.
If a certain topic is included in the curriculum at a certain level, it may be assumed that
the topic was fulfilling one of the curricular goals of the system. However, if the teacher
is not aware of the underlying goal behind a subject or the whole system s/he can
deliver the content but not likely in the right context.
For the monitoring and evaluation component, subject supervisors were
interviewed. In an integrated system, these supervisors should be primarily
monitoring if the overall objectives of the curriculum are being met. However, on
analyzing the instrument they use for evaluating the teachers, we found that there were
no direct indicators of evaluating the quality of delivery or even the delivery of national
goals. One of the factors on the instument, the professional development activities
attended by the teacher, can contribute to some part of incorporating national goals in
the curriculum. But other than that no other factor contributes towards it. However,
one of the supervisors assumed that if the content of the textbook is delivered, national
goals will be satisfied; one other supervisor felt that the supervisor’s job was to make
sure that the subject is taught at the right pace so that the teacher is able to finish the
text on time. This again points to a system that believes in delivering the content, and
automatically assumes that the goals of education will be satified if the content is
delivered.
Figure 4 shows the ideal aligned system and the current system in the UAE. The
ideal system will have development, delivery and evaluation aligned whereas the
current system lacks that alignment. The problem can be rectified by different
measures – through adoption of a framework focused on interrelationships and having
very extensive teachers’ guide for each course that highlight how each topic
contributes to the national goals and content that reinforces those goals. This should be
supplemented with seminars, workshops and training sessions both for the teachers
and supervisors. A different measurement instrument that places higher emphasis on
effectiveness of delivering the national and subject goals should be developed for use

Figure 4.
Integrated system aligned
vs. current
by the supervisors. Above all, an orientation to goals rather than textbooks, to systems The UAE
thinking and to the vision developed for the system and perhaps some form of strategic
feedback to the respective committees established in the structural framework
education system
delineated by the ministry might be worth consideration to erase the misalignment
indicated by this research.

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Corresponding author
Mohammed Arif is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: mohammed.arif@
buid.ac.ae

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