Dubai, September 30: The education authority in Dubai said it will strive to be more transparent and open channels of communication with parents through various initiatives in the future.
“In due time there will be a way when parents can talk, raise an issue and can give a suggestion,” said Dr Abdulla Al Karam, director general of KHDA and chairman of the Board of Directors.
The first attempt of the education authority is a questionnaire that will be sent out to 200,000 parents giving them a chance to answer questions about their child’s schooling. The opinion of the parents will be given to inspectors before they visit schools for the second cycle of inspections.
“This year we insisted on engaging everyone. The purpose of this exercise is so that the inspectors have an idea of what people think of the school,” he said. The decision of the school’s grade will not rest upon the parents view but the authority said it wants to gauge the expectations of the parents.
“The very essence of our strategy is to engage people. A three-way dialogue has to be created between the parents, school and the regulatory body. We are keen on engaging them but it is a step by step process,” he said.
After the first cycle of inspections each school was given a detailed report with strengths, weaknesses and recommendations to work on. However, parents had access to only a summary report uploaded by the education authority on its website.
This year, KHDA has decided to share all the findings with the public.
“We will share the full report which is 17-20 pages with the parents,” said Jameela Al Muhairi, chief of the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau.
As reported earlier by Khaleej Times, schools will give the parents a username and password for the online questionnaire.
Parents have seven days to complete and submit their answers.
The answers will remain confidential and no school will know what individual parents have said.
A summary of survey findings will be included in both the individual school reports and the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau Annual Report next year.
Parents can access the questionnaire on www.khda.gov.ae and queries about the survey can be sent to inspections@khda.gov.ae.
–Agencies