IELTS exam provides test for schools

The low average score in the IELTS points to issues within the UAE’s education system

Is a common language test "culturally biased" against some students in the UAE? (Photo: Reem Mohammed)

A recent study on the results of the International English Language Testing System, or IELTS, in the UAE raises a few questions. Pupils from the UAE ranked lowest among the main 40 countries where the test is taken. The average UAE score was 4.9, compared to the international average of 6 for women and 5.8 for men. Dr Hilda Freimuth, a senior lecturer at Khalifa University, put this discrepancy down to a perceived "cultural bias", meaning that students found the questions unfamiliar to them and unrelated to their lives.

What seems to be the issue here, according to the study, is that students did not fully understand topics related to “social sciences and geographical locations related to the West”. The British Council, which markets the test, argues that test score outcomes “are not affected by cultural and background knowledge”. Test questions typically use the West as a point of reference, while asking students to draw out conclusions from sample texts covering anything from dung beetles to printing presses.

On the surface, the idea of cultural bias is puzzling. The test is conducted across 40 countries – surely some students in those countries would also be affected by this bias. That does not rule out bias – such standardised tests are notorious for including cultural and even socio-economic bias – but it does require a deeper understanding of why UAE students appear to have been disproportionately affected. It is worth asking if there is a specific problem in the education system that needs to be addressed.

We should also distinguish between public and private education institutions. For example, Dr Freimuth said that Emirati students from government high schools were more likely to have trouble interpreting the data from the graphs. This highlights a gap in critical thinking, graph literacy and reading skills in public schools that needs to be tackled if we want our students to perform better in standard international tests.

Our education system has to continue to develop. Standardised tests are an opportunity to refine the system. If there is cultural bias, it should be investigated and reformed. In the meantime, schools must ensure students are equipped to pass the IELTS test as it now is. But more broadly, this study should be taken as a student might take the results of a test: as an opportunity to identify those areas where schools need further work.