How cheaper schools went to the top of the class
The heads of some of Abu Dhabi’s highest rated schools have said their outstanding ranking shows that schools do not have to charge a fortune to offer top quality education.
This week, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Education and Knowledge released the biennial Irtiqa’a Inspection Report that gave four schools – Al Muna Academy, Raha International School, Merryland International School and Brighton College in Al Ain – the top, outstanding, rating.
School fees vary greatly across the emirate. Bright Riders School in Mohamed bin Zayed City charges a tuition fee of Dh17,200 per year for Grade 9, while parents of pupils at Repton School on Reem Island pay Dh70,000 – four times as much.
Merryland International
School in Mussaffah earned the top ranking for the first time this year and charges tuition fees starting at Dh23,500 in kindergarten and Dh41,100 for Grade 12.
Aaron Grandon, the school’s chairman, said Merryland’s jump from a “very good” rating to “outstanding” was the result of a collective effort guided by the school’s founder, Susheela George.
“She is a passionate educator and that passion has been driven into the teachers’ minds.
“Her passion is such that she goes to different parts of the world to collect world-class resources for the school,” he said.
The school has a 3D laboratory, a robotics lab and weather station and Mr Grandon said staff worked hard throughout the year – not just during inspections – to offer their pupils a quality experience.
“School fees should be affordable for everyone,” he said. “There are many schools that are charging hundreds of thousands of dirhams, but our highest fee is Dh41,100.”
When choosing a school, he said, parents should “look at the dedication of the school and committed service that the school offers” rather than assume expensive tuition fees equate to the best education.
Raha International School in Khalifa City also earned an outstanding rank, with fees from Dh37,800 for early years to Dh59,500 for Grade 12.
Al Muna Academy, an Aldar Academy school in Al Danah, was the third affordable school rated outstanding. It charges Dh43,500 in annual fees.
Bill Houldsworth, the British director of education at Aldar Academies, said the cost of education in the UK bore no relation to quality of education.
“If I think back to conditions in the UK, some of the outstanding schools are in the most deprived areas of the country,” he said.
“There, the focus is on the progress that children make from the starting point. So, what makes it difficult for the expensive schools is that the starting point is a lot higher and to continue to make the progress is very difficult.
“In the UAE, we have an interesting situation where the progress children make in schools depends on the quality of teaching, no matter what you pay. That’s the difference between high and low-fee schools. The environment people pay for – the quality of teaching doesn’t necessarily match that.”
A school charging higher fees may have more facilities but parents should try to enrol their children in a school with the best teachers, Mr Houldsworth said.
Schools are judged in several categories, including pupils’ achievements, personal and social development, innovation skills, teaching and assessment, and leadership and management of the school, with inspections lasting between three and five days.
While a very good school exceeds expectations, an outstanding school substantially exceeds expectations.
Jeff Evans, an education consultant at Learning Key Education Consultancy, said improvement in ratings showed positive school leadership, high quality learning and sustained progress in pupil achievement, but the cost of school fees did not always guarantee the best education.
“Many schools operating on affordable fees cannot provide sustainable financial support for development and operational costs – the numbers simply do not balance. Competition for schools with affordable fees and good or better ratings is intense because they offer attractive value for money,” he said.
Some schools can charge affordable fees because they are part of groups – such as Gems, Aldar and Taaleem – that can subsidise fees and benefit from economies of scale.
Of the four outstanding schools, only Brighton College Al Ain charges higher fees, between Dh49,907 and Dh79,000.
Headmaster Kenneth Greig said it earned its first outstanding result in 2016.
Two years on, there have been a few changes.
“We knew we would have to improve even more to get a second outstanding, and it was a team effort. In the inspection report we got outstanding in all six performance standards,” Dr Greig said.
“What we feel contributes to our overall rating is that there is a strong sense of what the school stands for. It brings everyone together and makes people feel like it’s a community based on kindness.”
Half of the pupils at the school are Emirati. It has also instituted a system of parent representatives.
In the UAE ... the progress children make in schools depends on the quality of teaching, no matter what you pay BILL HOULDSWORTH Director of education, Aldar Academies