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Education in UAE
The increasing population of the UAE and growing concern for strengthening the economy, particularly that of Dubai, has put direct emphasis on education. Education is an essential ingredient to the development of human capital, and it is considered to be the third most important factor of production.UAE Educational Sector Over the years, the UAE has progressed rapidly in the development of both public and private sector education. However, there is a real need to understand and assess the growth of this sector collectively in terms of policy and continual investment in the infrastructure and to finally ensure that graduates are prepared to enter the labor force and assist in the country’s development. Schools Currently, in UAE there are 1,238 schools offering Kindergarten to 12th grade education. 61 per cent of these schools were public and 39 per cent were private (See Table 1).The most number of schools are in Abu Dhabi, accounting for 37 per cent of total number of schools in the UAE. Dubai followed with 28 per cent, Sharjah with 21 per cent and the other emirates with 15 per cent. Education in Dubai is reliant on private education as private schools accounted for 60 per cent of the total number of schools in Dubai. However, although Abu Dhabi has a greater number of private schools than Dubai, it is still more reliant on public schools. Public schools in Abu Dhabi accounted for 64.4 per cent of the total schools in the emirate. Employment Employment in UAE schools is mainly divided into two main categories: teachers and staff (administrative and technical). Employment in UAE schools amounted to 52,000 in 2004/2005 of which 83 per cent were teachers and 17 per cent were staff. The employment in UAE schools increased by 3,711 employees or grew by a rate of 8 per cent from 2002/3003 and 2004/2005. The growth is mainly attributed to the increase in employment at private schools (17%) and to a very insignificant level an increase in employment at public school (0.8%). Students In the year 2004/2005, the number of students in UAE schools totaled 630,000 of which 55 per cent were in private schools. In line with the above facts, the number of students in Dubai private schools are relatively more than those in public schools. This is indicative of the fact that private school education is in demand as a result of its efficiency. Total number of students in Dubai represent 24 per cent of total number of UAE students. In the case of Abu Dhabi though, the number of students in the public schools exceeds that of the private schools.Measuring Educational Development Currently, there are only a few methods to measure human capital development. Efforts are being made by the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to achieve standardization within the educational sector worldwide using a variety of internal and external efficiency, quality, and equity indicators. In view of the universally accepted indicators and given the inconsistency of UAE educational data, only one such indicator, the student/teacher ratio (internal efficiency), can be applied to compare both public and private schools in the UAE. The student/teacher ratio is usually used as a proxy to estimate the class size. In 2004/2005 the ratio was 15:1 for the UAE. A further breakdown into private and public schools results in a different scenario. The ratio in public schools and private schools was 12:1 and 17:1, respectively. Benchmarking UAE Education Based on the above, the World Bank maintains a Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) which measures a country’s ability to generate, adopt and diffuse knowledge. It takes into account the economic incentive, education, innovation, and information and communications technologies (ICT) performances of 132 countries and ranks them according to their economic efficiency in terms of economic de|
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