New inspections for all UAE public schools to begin this year

Inspectors will ensure school offer required number of lessons and help to curb absenteeism by pupils.

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ABU DHABI // Inspectors will begin running the rule over more than 400 state schools in Dubai and the Northern Emirates when pupils return next month after the summer break.

The new campaign of inspections is the most comprehensive ever conducted by the Ministry of Education, and follows a successful pilot scheme at the end of last term at 29 schools in Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Sharjah.

Inspectors will check that schools offer the prescribed number of hours of lessons a year, observe the progress of pupils towards final exams next June and working to curb the trend of absenteeism towards the end of the school year.

"We have concluded the final report on the mechanisms and stages of implementation regarding inspections in public schools," said Jamila Al Muhairi, head of the recently established student counselling and public school inspections department at the ministry.

"Full implementation of the programme in all public schools will start at the beginning of the school year."

Preparations ahead of the rollout went through three main stages, Ms Al Muhairi said.

"The first stage involved informing stakeholders about the nature of the new mission of academic counselling in light of the ministry's new outlook."

The second stage involved training and technical preparation of staff for the implementation of inspections, and the third stage was the pilot scheme that began in May.

Considerable effort went into making education professionals more aware of the role of the counselling and public school inspections department, Ms Al Muhairi said.

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