EMIRATIS SWELL TEACHING RANKS
Public schools gain 51 local teachers for start of new term,
ABU DHABI // The number of Emirati teachers working in public schools will rise by 51 when the school year starts next month.
There are 4,390 Emirati teachers and 3,231 Emirati administrative staff already working in Abu Dhabi’s public schools, said Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).
The recruits are graduates of Adec’s Edaad programme, a fourmonth course to train Emirati graduates to work as teachers.
Abdulla Al Humaidan, executive director of Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council, which helped to recruit the trainees and keeps a database of Emirati graduates seeking employment, said the goal of Edaad was to make Emiratis global leaders in education.
“The number of UAE nationals working in the education sector is increasing as Emiratisation is a top priority for Adec,” said Mr Al Humaidan.
“Nationals form a high percentage of the total number of employees, and Adec will exert all its efforts to help increase this percentage, which will contribute to increasing the number of administrative and technical staff working across Adec schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the Western Region, so as to achieve Adec’s strategic goals.”
Emiratis make up about 39 per cent of the teaching workforce in the emirate’s public schools, and 66 per cent of staff at Adec’s headquarters.
Edaad, which means training or development in Arabic, is part of the regulator’s efforts to reach the target of 50 per cent Emiratisation of the teaching workforce by 2018.
The training began in March and was conducted by the Emirates College for Advanced Education. This is the second batch of Edaad graduates to enter the workforce.
Last year, 35 teachers were hired after completing the programme.
About 100 trainees have so far joined the programme since its launch last year.
To qualify, candidates had to pass an interview and be a college graduate with a minimum 2.5 grade-point average.
They also had to score well on the International English Language Testing System.