More than 340 teachers dismissed in Abu Dhabi

The public-school teachers were made redundant because of changes in the school curriculum, the Abu Dhabi Education Council said.

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ABU DHABI // Education chiefs have dismissed more than 340 teachers from state schools in Abu Dhabi.

The schools regulator, Abu Dhabi Education Council, said 272 teachers lost their jobs because their skills no longer fitted the curriculum.

They were “made redundant due to changes in the school curriculum as per the New School Model”, Adec said. “They were no longer required to teach in their areas of speciality.”

Another 71 teachers were fired for failing to meet performance standards. “These teachers were given ample time to improve their overall performance through teaching standard tools and evaluation tools set by Adec,” it said.

“School leaders were clear with those teachers about their overall performance standards throughout the year.”

The dismissed teachers made up more than 3 per cent of Adec’s teaching staff in its 255 schools. They were given two months’ notice of their dismissal, Adec said.

“They were well aware of their termination in advance.”

Adec would not specify which grades or subjects the dismissed teachers taught, and said only that “these are the total number of teachers terminated across different subjects in the emirate of Abu Dhabi”.

It said they were not limited to teachers who taught in English or Arabic.

The New School Model was introduced into government schools in 2010 as part of an overhaul of Abu Dhabi’s education system.

It standardised the curriculum, introduced teachers to give lessons in English for half of the subjects and placed strong emphasis on developing the pupils’ “21st-century skills”.

The new curriculum began with primary school children and advanced one grade a year.

Last year, as the model was reaching Grade 9, Adec said the high school curriculum would also be restructured, placing a special focus on promoting science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects.

The restructuring eliminated the humanities stream and introduced a new curriculum in which Stem made up nearly 50 per cent of the subjects. Adec said this month, it had hired 548 English-language teachers for the next academic year.

rpennington@thenational.ae