Teachers ‘can adapt or hit the road’

Regulator chief lays down the law on classroom reforms

ABU DHABI // The education chief wants principals to deliver a blunt message to teachers who resist change: “It’s my way or the highway.”

Dr Ali Al Nuaimi, director general of Abu Dhabi Education Council, said he still met teachers who complained about leading 24 periods a week or protest- ed against innovative education.

“When you ask them to change, some of them say they don’t want to because this is the way they were trained and they want to stay like that,” Dr Al Nuaimi said.

“If we don’t take the hard position with such teachers, we will stay behind and we will maintain only a traditional educational system.”

Dr Al Nuaimi delivered his message to education policymakers, leaders and experts gathered for the Bett Middle East Leadership Summit.

He called on school leaders to “not compromise” in the move towards further change.

“This is the real challenge that we are facing in the region.”

Dr Al Nuaimi also stressed that educators must go beyond introducing new technology into the classroom and focus on building a culture of lifelong learning and critical thinking.

“What we really need is smart students and smart teachers and smart principals, and that you can’t buy anywhere,” he said. “You have to create that.”

Public education reform has been at full throttle since the authority launched the Abu Dhabi School Model in 2010, which introduced bilingual education for government pupils.

The education regulator has since eliminated the science and humanities streams from high school curriculums and added more compulsory science, technology, engineering and maths subjects.

Dr Al Nuaimi said that the authority stood behind these reforms as solid foundations for building globally competitive citizens.

“Adopting that integrated, bilingual system enabled the student, the teacher, the principal to use so many resources that are available worldwide,” he said.

“The sky is the limit for them. There are so many things that they can use in and outside the classroom. We feel that we made the right decision in that approach.”

But now, he said, “we have to challenge the students, the parents, the system as a whole – and especially the teachers and the principals – and move to the next phase”.

Teachers who have taken part in the reforms introduced by the authority and the Ministry of Education over the past few years say they have already seen its positive effect on younger pupils.

“I think that change is for the better,” said James Heard, who has been working in a public school, teaching English, maths and science to boys for more than four years.

“I can see the boys changing, I can see the progression, I can see everybody learning – from the management, to the teachers to the boys.

“It has just kind of evolved. These boys are engaged, they’re talkative, they want to do the work, compared to five years ago when I first got here. That’s a huge change.”

Fatima Ali, an academic quality improvement officer with the regulator, said teachers had also benefited from the 90 min- utes of after-school professional development they must attend each week. “It’s working,” Ms Ali said. “Adec is moving in the right direction because it considered everything – students, parents, teachers, the buildings.

“If you see the new school buildings, they are like college campuses. It helps the learning and the education.”