Rankings revealed for Dubai's Indian and Pakistani schools

The latest report from the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau has found schools to be lacking in several key areas.

DUBAI // Results of the latest inspections at South Asian schools in the emirate were released this morning, revealing shortcomings including a lack of special needs support and poor Arabic teaching.

The Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau's 2011-2012 inspection results for Indian and Pakistani schools found that all three Pakistani schools, attended by 3,211 pupils, offered an unsatisfactory level of education.

Inspectors found several areas of concern and limited support and resources to raise standards.

Schools faced challenges in recruiting skilled educators and their governance and leadership was ineffective. "One striking feature of Pakistani schools is the positive desire of most students to learn and improve their lives through education," said the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) report.

Inspectors also noted teachers at the schools had a strong commitment to improve.

Of the 21 Indian schools inspected this year, two received an outstanding grade. Ten were ranked as acceptable, seven as good and two were found unsatisfactory.

And, despite the progress made by some institutions - this is the first time an Indian school received a top ranking since the DSIB began inspecting Asian schools three years ago - the report paints a grim picture of the slow development across Indian schools in Dubai.

Two schools dropped to the acceptable category this year and no more Indian schools were added to the good list.

"After a rapid improvement in most areas within Indian curriculum schools from 2009-2010, the rate of improvement has slowed down and, overall, judgement of schools have mostly stayed the same as last year," said inspectors.

More than 60,565 pupils attend Indian schools in Dubai.

"There are still areas that require further attention to reduce the number of acceptable schools and increase the number providing a good quality of education."

Most Indian curriculum schools have poor support for pupils with special education needs, and insufficient effective specialist advice. Lessons were not tailored to pupils needs and those with learning difficulties did not make the progress they were capable of, the report found.

In key subjects evaluated - English, Arabic, maths and science - inspectors found a lack of practical application in lessons and minimal use of technology in many schools.

Only 57 per cent of Indian pupils have acquired an acceptable level of the language, the report stated. Though pupils use English more effectively now, they were limited to technical reading classes and did not have a deep understanding of different texts.

About half of the schools demonstrated good quality learning methods but pupils could not learn independently.

Pupils assessment techniques were also found to be underdeveloped in two-thirds of the schools inspected and eight per cent had unsatisfactory procedures, too.

Indian schools were commended for good leadership and strong parental links, but inefficient self-evaluation was hampering the necessary growth and improvements.

"School leaders are often overgenerous in their own evaluations of the performance of their own school and a few are simply inaccurate," said inspectors.

"The monitoring of teaching and learning by school leaders is not always rigorous or realistic enough."

The full report and individual school results are available here.