KHDA offers wide-ranging vision to schools in Dubai

The event was extremely successful, providing attendees an opportunity to hear about KHDA's visions and proposals for ensuring quality education in schools.

Fatma Al Marri, CEO, Dubai Schools Agency, offered a broad overview of the Schools Agency and its commitment to working with and supporting all sectors of the K-12 community.

A featured presentation was offered by Dr. Abdalla Al Amiri, Head of Policy and Planning at the MoE, who highlighted the transfer of certain responsibilities from the Ministry to the Agency and confirmed the close, collaborative relationship between the two.

Jameela Al Muhairi, the Chief of the newly formed School Inspection Bureau outlined the function of the new bureau and its commitment to supporting schools in pursuit of excellence. She spoke about her vision for a Bureau that provides transparent information about school quality to parents and consumers while offering schools insight and guidance on improving to excellence.

Additional presentations were given on the overall KHDA role and vision by Dr. Wafi Dawood, Chief of KHDA's Excellence Unit and Kalthoom Al Balooshi of the Authority. The ambitious and wide ranging nature of KHDA's mandate and the strategy development process currently underway to achieve its vision and goals were presented in a high-level fashion stressing the links between all elements of the human development landscape and a person's journey through life and the workplace.

Taha Al Hamri, from the Schools' Agency reviewed the new customer centric services and approach of the Agency's Administrative Services Unit (ASU). Originally the Dubai Educational Zone, has recently moved to the School Agency's location in Academic City and provides its services in a one-stop, appointment-oriented fashion. Yahya Al Ansari, KHDA's Head of Research & Planning, outlined the Authority's recent successful administration of the TIMSS international academic assessment in schools and looked forward to this spring's trial phase of the Program in International Student Achievement assessments (PISA), both of which give the authority and the community a baseline against which they can evaluate the ambitious programs to come.

Abderraouf Ben Zaied described the new Licensing Office at the Authority which also has as its central focus the client, which he described in fact as the school. The Licensing Office provides a reference for quality of schools that, complemented by the Schools Inspection Bureau, gives the community a credible way to make their schooling choices.


Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of KHDA emphased the key role of non-government institutions in developing a world-class schooling system. He said, "We see this as the beginning of a new dialogue. This sector plays an important role in the education process in the Emirate of Dubai and we are lucky to have such a diverse community of schools with close to 20 curriculums. We know even greater success will flow from the partnerships, collaboration and information sharing begun today."

He stressed that the key focus should be on our final 'customer' - the student - the one purpose for which everyone was gathered there.

When referring to the quality aspect for schooling Dr Al Karam said, "The School Agency, licensing and inspection are three sides of the golden triangle that add up to quality education. While these three aspects are not new to the education process, what's new is the unique way they have been put under one umbrella to manage and fulfill the expectations of the stakeholders in question i.e. students, parents, school owners and teachers."

Dr Al Karam remarked on the KHDA's inclusive and non-biased approach to schooling, "At the end of the day, schools are schools whether they are government-funded schools or non-government funded and must not be perceived differently if we are to achieve educational excellence for all students in Dubai. It's about teaching kids."

This event illustrates KHDA's collaborative approach to creating a world class and sustainable human development system. It marks the first in a series of ongoing events with schools to ensure they are updated on developments to improve the quality of schools while providing an opportunity for them to provide input into programmes, services and decision making processes.