Private schools meet National Agenda goal
Performance in international assessments on par with top countries
The performance of private schools in Dubai is in line with National Agenda targets, newly released data suggests.
The schools are on par with high-achieving countries in TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
High rankings in TIMSS and PISA are among the National Agenda targets set for 2021.
On Monday, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) announced that the performance of Dubai private schools for grade eight in TIMSS 2015 was on par with schools in the top 15 high-performing countries, which is a 2021 target.
Also, in PISA 2015, Dubai private schools have performed similar to schools in the top 20 countries in reading and in science – another 2021 target.
TIMSS 2015 and PISA 2015 national results were announced in late 2016 but Dubai’s comparative performance as being in the league of top achieving countries was revealed on Monday during a meeting of school principals at KHDA to discuss the future of international assessments.
TIMSS is held every four years and its latest round was in 2015, when 13,000 Dubai students took part.
Pupils in Dubai have for the first time risen above the international average of 500 points.
Meanwhile, PISA is held every three years, with its most recent cycle held in 2015. The results from Dubai showed students improving six points in science, four points above the global average. In reading, they improved by eight points,
Dr Abdulla Al Karam, director-general of KHDA, said: “School leaders have played a very important role in our journey to work towards achieving the UAE national agenda goals and the latest international assessment results are a reflection of their hard work.”
Dr Rabaa Al Sumaiti, executive director of international assessments at KHDA, said: “The close alignment between school inspection ratings and international assessment results means that we are able to have an annual, accurate measure of schools’ progress with the targets of the UAE National Agenda