Schools hit by teacher turnover of 60 per cent

DUBAI // Efforts to improve education standards are being crippled by annual staff turnover in some private schools of up to 60 per cent.

The departure every year of hundreds of teachers and their replacement with an influx of new ones has considerably altered the standard in those schools and has affected their rate of progress, Dubai schools inspectors say.

"There is a great mobility of teachers and principals in Dubai schools which makes the system very different from those in other countries," said Dr Abdulla al Karam, director general of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the authority responsible for private schools.

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"The issue is generally with new schools where teachers from other countries try out one school and then say, let me try another one now. That is part of a fluid society."

Many schools rated "acceptable" or "unsatisfactory" by inspectors have also had a change in management. Some have managed to pull their schools out of the mire, but in others the changes have led to their failure.

Progress at some schools has also been affected by a sharp growth in pupil numbers, which has not always been well managed by school owners in the past three years.

The Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB) report on the International School of Choueifat, for example, highlights the substantial turnover of staff. It also refers to the school's "reluctance to address the recommendations made in previous reports".

School heads said teacher movement was inevitable in the environment they operate in.

Poonam Bhojani, chief executive of Innoventures Education, which owns the Dubai International Academy (DIA) and Raffles International schools said a change in a third of the teaching staff every year was not uncommon in international schools.

"International teachers are mobile," she said. "They do not like to stay in one place for too long and are generally employed on an annual contract."

DIA and Raffles-South Campus were both rated "good" in this year's inspections, and Raffles-West Campus was "acceptable".

The West Campus had recently appointed new senior leaders, the DSIB reported. It said the new management was committed to improvement but a lack of cohesion had affected progress.

Many unsatisfactory schools were asked last year to appoint new management teams to improve education quality.

Inspectors said the Dubai Grammar School needed a strong and purposeful leadership, which it has brought in as well as implementing professional development for the staff.

The school’s grade remains “unsatisfactory” but Geraldine Cranfield, the principal, said they had made progress in many areas this year.

“There has been considerable investment of time, effort and money in extending the teaching techniques being used,” she said.

“There has been a particular focus on the curriculum, quality of teaching and assessment processes.”

Ms Bhojani said their new management was working to steer the school in the right direction but would need more time to do so.

“One of the reasons for schools being unable to meet expectations could be lack of time. The frequency of inspections should be revised. Also, one inspection methodology cannot match the needs of all the different categories and curriculums of schools in Dubai.”

However, Jameela al Muhairi, head of the DSIB, said the high churn rate at schools makes it constant monitoring all the more necessary. “If there is a complete change of principal and staff, that means it’s a whole new school and has to be inspected again to ensure the quality has not changed,” she said.

One parent of a child at the International School of Choueifat said she had seen many teachers come and go. “I raised the matter with the school because it was affecting my son’s performance but I think every parent faces this problem in Dubai.”

Another parent, Lourdes Tijerina, moved her children to other schools because of the inconsistency. “Every time there was a change in the teacher in the middle of the year it affected my daughter,” she said.

“Her grades dropped only in those subjects because it takes young kids time to adjust to different teaching styles.”

Khadija Khan, whose daughter is at an American school, said there was a problem when a French teacher left in the middle of the term. “It is hard for kids when they have to start building that relationship with a new teacher,” she said.

“Back home, the teacher wouldn’t even change every year as it does here as well,” said Mrs Khan, who is from Kazakhstan.

“It is a problem and I think there should be more incentives for teachers to carry on.”

aahmed@thenational.ae