A joint initiative has been established between the Ministry of Education (MoE), the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) and the Sharjah Private Education Authority Ministry of Education (SPEA) specifically to evaluate the quality of distance learning provided by public and private schools in the UAE.
The Distance Learning Evaluation (DLE) has been developed to create shared expectations of distance learning for schools, parents and students and to provide schools with feedback in order to help them improve key aspects of their provision.
Teams from MoE, KHDA, ADEK and SPEA interviewed principals and teachers at public and private schools across the UAE to discuss the implementation of distance learning by their schools, and to gain an understanding of how it can be improved.
Evaluation criteria and processes were developed and piloted with a number of public and private schools and insights gained during these pilot evaluations were used.
The evaluations will start before mid May and will cover the following three areas:
- Students’ distance learning and wellbeing
- Teaching and monitoring of students’ learning
- Leading and managing students’ learning
Each school evaluation will be conducted remotely and is expected to take approximately five hours. It will include online meetings with the principal and senior leadership team, as well as remote observation of lessons. Schools will be given prior notice of an evaluation and the outcomes will be shared with schools and also published at a later stage.