Indian schools’ KG teaching at its worst

Inadequate support for thousands of pupils with special educational needs, KHDA report says

Teaching quality is at its worst in kindergarten classes in Indian schools in Dubai, compared to elementary, middle and high school classes.

Early years education, identified as the most crucial phase of education by researchers, needs much investment if these schools need to improve, officials said, as the Indian and Pakistani school inspections 2012- 13 report was released by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority ( KHDA) yesterday.

More than 70 per cent of secondary teaching was found to be of good or better quality. By contrast, 38 per cent of teaching in kin- dergarten was rated good or better, with more than 60 per cent rated acceptable or unsatisfactory.

There has been no significant improvement in the overall performance of Indian schools over the past two years, largely due to inaccurate self- evaluation of strengths and weaknesses, the report finds.

The number of students attending underperforming Indian curriculum schools also has nearly doubled over the past four years.

Alarmingly, thousands of students with special educational needs, enrolled at these Indian curriculum schools, are getting inadequate support.

Only 3,113 students out of the 60,000 students attending Indian schools were identified by the schools to have special educational needs, leading officials to the conclusion that this indicates “weak and imprecise identification processes”.

The number of students attending the worstperforming Indian curriculum schools has nearly doubled over the past four years. While 2,277 students attended unsatisfactory schools in 2009, as many as 4,121 students are now enrolled in these schools.

The worrying figures were disclosed as the Knowledge and Human Development Authority ( KHDA) released results for the 2012- 2013 inspection cycle at Indian and Pakistani schools in Dubai on Monday.

There has been no significant improvement in the overall performance of Indian schools over the last two years, the report finds. The answer may lie in the fact that most schools rate themselves too highly, as this stands in the way of coming up with plans to improve, officials said. Of the 23 Indian schools inspected, two were rated outstanding and seven good. Just as last year, 12 were rated acceptable and two unsatisfactory. The Indian High School and the Modern High School retained their positions as outstanding schools this year.

Two schools judged unsatisfactory last year improved their rating to acceptable; however, two bigger schools fell into the unsatisfactory category, raising the total number of students in underperforming schools, Jameela Al Muhairi, Chief of Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau of KHDA, told Gulf News.

Out of the 200,000 students in Dubai attending private schools, around 60,000 ( 30 per cent) attend Indian schools.

More than half of the students attend outstanding or good schools, and there has been a slight increase in the number of students in these schools over last year.

“But the rate of improvement is too slow,” she said. “Besides, of the 23 schools, only five rated themselves accurately in their self- assessment report.”

“When an acceptable school believes it is outstanding, it is a major issue. Because if a school does not know its strengths and weaknesses how will they chart out action plans to improve?” she asked.

According to the report, the number of unsatisfactory lessons observed by inspectors has increased and teachers do not consistently demonstrate a confident grasp of best international practice.

Another significant shortcoming identified by the report is the fact that the quality of teaching in kindergarten was the weakest among all phases in most schools. Inspections found that around 20 per cent of kindergarten teaching and learning in Indian schools is unsatisfactory.

“A few schools have kindergarten classes well over 30 students with 35 students in classes. These schools are failing to comply with licensing requirements,” the report says.

Sixty per cent of children failed to make improvements in maths, science and English as passive teaching is the most common teaching style adopted rather than giving children opportunities to exercise choice and communicate in class.

KHDA chief Dr Abdullah Al Karam reiterated that school inspection results have consistently proven that the quality of a school never supersedes the quality of leadership at the school.

Where the leadership is weak, there is often a decline in quality of key aspects of the school, he said. Teaching quality declined 71 per cent, learning 68, and overall progress 67 per cent, in schools where leadership is poor, the report says.

Challenges faced by schools which have a double shift — in the morning and evening — have also been addressed in the report.

These include lack of space, high numbers of students in classes and overcrowded conditions, besides long working hours for teachers.

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