The School Operations Sector at Abu
Dhabi Department of Education and
Knowledge (ADEK) held a briefing meeting that was attended by several
educational leaders from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and 72 educational
cadres in Abu Dhabi. They were nominated to occupy the position of Senior
Administrator of School Complex in the Emirati School system.
This meeting
is held in the context of structuring and adjusting the School Operations
Sector with the unified educational system which resulted from the directions
of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United
Arab Emirates, may Allah save him.
The meeting
is held to brief the nominees about the position duties, responsibilities and
missions and the nominee selection standards and mechanism upon which 52 out of
72 persons will be appointed as Senior Administrators of School Complexes.
It is
expected that the application of the Emirati School model all over the UAE will
contribute to developing the students’ knowledge; strengthening their national
identity; preserving traditions, conventions and heritage and instilling good
morals; encouraging creativity, critical thinking and research skills;
reviewing the useful international experiences. Furthermore, the application of
the Emirati School model will achieve the excellence of the educational process
outputs, dedicate happiness and positiveness in the educational field and
establish the foundations of contemporary, leading and creativity-based
education.
Development of the educational
system
His Excellency Hussain Al Hammadi,
Minister of Education, stated that the development of the educational system is
a top priority in the UAE national agenda 2021, referring to the MOE’s keenness
on the circulation of the Emirati school model to ensure the availability of
education opportunities for all students. He pointed out that such
opportunities put them on the academic track that conforms to their capacity,
contributes to the development of their skills and establishes a specialized
national cadres base in the qualitative fields required by the development
plans of the UAE.
His Excellency expressed that the
unification of the educational system will contribute to a qualitative
transformation of the supporting frameworks of the educational tracks and utilization
of the potentials and experiences. He drew the attention to that the
structuring of the school sectors depended on a specific methodology that
guarantees the efficiency of performance. He said that this methodology was
based on introducing inspiring examples selected from the educational leaders
qualified for the chief director position, the matter which will accelerate the
pace of improving the school performance and will reflect positively on
achieving the MOE’s strategies and plans in the future.
He stressed both parties’ interest
in selecting excellent professional cadres of the plenty national educational
leaders who enjoy excellent skills, master the modern management arts and have
the innovative and creative thinking capacities. He pointed out that the modern
model and concept of the Emirati School require a value-added management staff
that contributes to the development of the educational system and the
accomplishment of greater achievements.
He referred to that the Emirati
School model provides students with an attractive learning environment that
combines the various elements of efficient and integrated education and takes
into account the employment of potentials and the utilization of the
development process to make it the best place for learning and guarantee highly
efficient educational outputs.
Building a modern educational system
His Excellency Dr. Ali Rashid Al
Nuaimi, Chairman of the Department of Education and Knowledge, emphasized that
the UAE is stepping constantly forward to building a modern educational system
depending on international standards. He said that this educational system is
founded on the unification of the educational system all over the UAE to
provide our students with international standards that join student to the
knowledge-based community, contribute to building an innovative and creative
community and serve the UAE’s pursue towards the knowledge-based economy.
His Excellency said “The modern
education that keeps pace with the society’s requirements is the main pillar of
the UAE’s development efforts and transformation to the knowledge-based
economy. Therefore, ADEK spares no effort to allow everyone to have an
internationally standardized education at Abu Dhabi and to provide every
citizen with job opportunities and enable them to build UAE’s future.” He
pointed out that the MOE-ADEK adjustment which resulted in the application of
the Emirati School model all over the UAE will contribute to building,
preparing and qualifying an Emirati human being that is capable of building and
protecting its country.”
The School Operations Sector stated
that 72 persons were nominated to occupy the position of Senior Administrators.
Their performance evaluation is excellent. They were carefully selected. It is
stressed that embedding the position of Senior Administrator of School Complex
in the process of structuring the School Operations Sector is meant to support
and proceed with the development of the educational system, depending on a set
of advanced management methods and techniques which are consistent with the
spirit of the modern life and allow the national cadres greater opportunity to
take part in the unified national educational system.
Therefore, in their adjustment, the
MOE and ADEK focused on constantly developing and providing the educational
environment with the means of supporting the educational role and the future in
the UAE. Both work on paving the way of the national cadres to prove themselves
in the educational arena as the most prominent actors that are capable of
making a knowledge-, experience- and skill- based difference.
Senior administrator conditions
The occupation of the Senior
Administrator position has general conditions which include having at least BA
degree in one of the main academic majors, IELTS band 5 and not less than 4
years of academic and teaching experience. Preferential conditions include Mcs.
or PhD degree in a specific academic genre, acquaintance with Arabic language
for non-native speakers, documented previous experience in school
administration, certified awards and medals of excellence in the educational
performance and documented previous experience in the development of curricula,
teaching design, learning, education or school development assessment.
Furthermore, appointees are required to prepare a case study of developing one
aspect of the school complex (academic achievement in the school for boys,
teaching and learning operations and student performance in the national and
international tests).
The general missions of the Senior
Administrator’s position are centered on contributing to the preparation of the
strategic and operational plan of the group of schools, the development of the
work performance indicators, the attempt to meet the performance indicators,
the follow-up of the administrative and financial operations and services for
the sake of evaluation and improvement, unification of the educational
practices in the group of schools concerned, strengthening the relationships
with the external partners, developing and encouraging internal partners,
change management to ensure efficiency and effectiveness, revising the action
procedures and techniques at schools and providing the proposals needed for
improving them, devising internal plans for the development of team building
culture, continuous learning to ensure high quality progress of work, regular
monitoring of the performance indicators and reviewing the achievement rates at
the group of schools.
Specialized missions
The specialized missions of the
position of the Senior Administrator of school complex include supporting the
school development by assisting the school group to develop its plans, improve
learning and teaching processes based on the results of internal and external
assessments, monitoring the progress of learning and education in the school
group to ensure quality improvement, supporting the school community in
applying the MOE's policies, ensuring compliance with frameworks and
methodologies, supervising and directing professional learning communities to
ensure the monitoring and dissemination of effective professional practices,
and ensuring good investment of human and financial resources at schools, in
addition to the development of mechanisms and controls to provide data from the
schools to ensure the integrity, quality and timeliness.
It is noteworthy that the MOE has
recently announced that the process structuring of the School Operations Sector
will produce six educational councils. Each council will cover six scopes; each
comprises three complexes. Each complex has 6 schools. The MOE referred to that
the creation of the position of the Senior Administrator of School Complex is
meant to improve the leadership efficiency of school administration.
The MOE pointed out that the process
of structuring of the School Operations Sector is dedicated by the need to
provide accurate information about the actual progress of the educational
process and the desire to make more flexible communications and contacts among
the educational cadres and the MOE. This reflects positively on the Emirati
School learning environment, progress of action intended to improve the
educational system with all its cadres and constituents and achievement of the
Emirati School vision and specifications, including the inputs, processes,
outputs and alumni features. This also reflects on the optimum investment of
the financial resources, exchange of academic and cognitive experiences between
the councils and the MOE, focus on the school and the quality of the school
operations, particularly the academic ones and ensuring responding to the
school requirements for effective implementation of school operations.