Higher Colleges of Technology

Ras AlKhaimah Womens College

Course code: EDU 4103

Course name: Managing Innovation and Change
Course teacher: Mark Eckersley
Task title: Final Essay A school situation report and
change proposal based on the teaching practice experience.

Zahrat AlMadaen School

Student name: Aaesha Mohammed

ID: H00248080

The educational sector in the UAE has played a central role in the
countrys ongoing
developmental aims and has become a central focus for reform and
improvement (Alhebsi, Pettaway & Waller, 2015). The academic system
has been through many changes and developments. Its beginnings
were simple and occurred in 1820s and this education system was
religious in nature, as it was managed by Mutawa, the person who
taught young boys and girls how to read the Quran, the Hadith of the
Prophet Mohammed and good morals, along with writing, reading and
mathematics, These studies were conducted in the Masjed moque.
The primary method for instruction in teaching was only repetition.
The Mutawa was a religious leader of the community, as he was highly
respected based for his high morality, values (Alnabah, 1996).
As families in the region became wealthier, from the nineteenth
centurys with the booming pearling industry (Davidson, 2008), they
hoped to develop better schools for their children. As a result, the first
formal schools in the Sheikhdoms were set up in the early twentieth
century. They were run both by Emiratis who were educated abroad
and by Arab expatriates, who were predominantly from Egypt and
Palestine (Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr AlQasimi Foundation, 2013).
In 1953, the first Kuwaiti educational mission opened a school in
Sharjah, some consider this as the introduction of formal education to
the UAE. Following that, schools flourished across the Emirates with
funding from Kuwait (Davidson, 2008). In the 1960s more schools were
initiated which were based on Kuwaits curriculum. In the following
years, the government built the first school for females and it was also
operated under Kuwaiti curriculum. The Kuwaiti model established
three stages of education for students: preparatory school, primary
school and secondary school. For secondary level, students took their

certificate by taking exams in Kuwait. By 1967, these exams were

conducted in the Emirates (Alrawi, 1996).
After the creation of the UAE in 1972, the government of the UAE
established the UAE ministry of education (MOE). Yet by the late 1980s
everything changed in the education system in the UAE to develop a
more modern system of education by creating a single Emirate
curriculum. Today, the education system and its improvement remains
one of the key priorities for the UAE as it seeks to move toward
knowledge-based economy (Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr AlQasimi
Foundation, 2013). New initiatives are being launched at all
educational levels. An innovation in one key area of focus has been to
create a scaffolded system from kindergarten to secondary schools and
on to higher education in the United Arab Emirates (Embassy of the
United Arab Emirates, 2015).
The school system in the UAE consists of two sectors: public and
private. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have the most private schools. In public
schools, for most subjects the language of instruction is Arabic. The
UAE public school system is divided into a four-tier system covering 14
years of education: kindergarten (KG1 through KG2), elementary
(Grade 1 through Grade 5), preparatory (Grade 6 through Grade 9),
and secondary (Grade 10 through Grade 12) (Oxford, 2012).
In public schools, the Education Zones are responsible for the
supervision and implementation of federal and local policies, the
formulation of initiatives to support policies, and for staff
administration (except in the Abu Dhabi Emirate). While the private
schools are currently growing at a faster rate than the public sector,
the public sector still caters for about 60% of the countrys student
population. In private schools there are over 17 curricula in numerous
languages being used; however, British, IB and the American curricula

are among the most popular (Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr AlQasimi
Foundation, 2013).
Higher education in the UAE is comprised of public, semi-public,
and private sectors, and all these three sectors offer a combination of
Diploma, Bachelor, Masters and Doctoral degrees. Public sector
universities include UAE University, Zayed University, and the Higher
College of technology. These universities are free for Emirati students
and almost all courses are conducted in English.
While private universities like Sharjah University, and Ajman University
of Science and Technology primarily serve expatriates, several
institutions have relatively high percentages of Emirati students in
relation to their total enrollments (Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr AlQasimi
Foundation, 2013). The semi-public universities are owned by private
and state shareholders, and typically do not operate as non-profit
institutions, and most students are expatriates. For example: Khalifah
University, and American University of Ras AlKhaimah. Founded in
1997, as a Center of Excellence for Applied Research and Training
(CERT) is the commercial arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology and
provides education, training and applied technology instruction
(Embassy Of United Arab Emirates, 2015). It works in developing
projects throughout the MENA region.
In relation to the special needs, the government of the UAE strongly
supports their education and learning services, under Article 29\2006
guaranteeing rights for people with special needs. In addition, efforts
are made to include special needs students in mainstream educational
settings. The UAE also participates in the Special Olympic, and has
established a comprehensive education program as well a training
course for UAE nationals to provide services to students with special
needs in Arabic (Embassy Of United Arab Emirates, 2015).

The Ras AlKhaimah education system began in 1955 with the opening
of the Al Qasimiyah School by Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi.
Then in 1964, education in Ras Al Khaimah came under the supervision
of the Arabian Gulf and South Public Authority which was related to
Kuwait office. After that in 1972-1980, the local authority became the
RAK Educational Zone. It has two main types of schools, Public
government and Private schools. Within both of these types of schools
there are predominately three sectors of school education in the UAE
which are Kindergarten, Primary and Secondary. All public schools
conduct single gender classes, however kindergarten have both
genders taught together (Gaad, Arif, &Scott, 2006).
This essay will be focusing on one primary public school in the UAE, in
Ras AlKhaimah, which is the Zahrat AlMadaen School. The essay will
focus on explaining the context and management within the school
and suggest potential innovations and processes for change in this
school.

Zahrat Almadaen School is one of the most modern Primary

public schools in Ras AlKhaimah built during the 1990s. Like most
public schools, it is a single gender school. It is a large girls school that
has up to 579 students from grade one to grade five. It is located in the
middle of the city of Ras AlKhaimah which makes it an urban school,
and the student clientele are predominately from the emerging UAE
middle class driven primarily in Ras AlKhaimah by the Government
sector and the RAK Free Trade Zone (Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr AlQasimi
Foundation, 2013). Zahrat Almadaen School has one female Principal
and thirty-eight female teachers. There is no Deputy Principal, so the
Principal has the major power and authority within this school.

Bush (1998, p.328) links leadership to values or purpose while

management relates to implementation. Zahrat AlMadaen school
follows three models of Educational management and leadership,
which they are: formal, cultural, and collegial.
The most appropriate model of management which is evident in the
school is the Formal model because the principal made the decisions,
and it follows in a hierarchical way from principal to secretary then the
teachers. It also uses cultural model because that the school is caring
about the important events that are related to their cultural national
identity to increase the spirit of being proud about the emeriti culture,
they celebrate in national day, and Flag Day, for example by wearing
the tradition clothes for example and decorate all the classes with
using materials with flag colors, and all the management of these
national celebrations are managed by the meeting of committees.
While the collegial model, the schools has several committees, like
student council, mother council, and teachers council, they all have
meetings to share decisions in planning for events like mothers day, to
set up a plan and share the ideas of implementing any innovations
changes, through these manages they organize everything in a proper
way to with good results at the end to make their school unique and
special.
While I was in teaching practice I noticed that there are some
challenges faced me as a teacher, which has an impact in some point
in my teaching progress. Zahrat AlMadaen school has a limited
network, which is important for us as teacher as an innovation outlook
that provide opportunities to develop teaching approaches in teaching,
also there is lack of necessary resources that teachers need in some
cases immediately: like printer for example to print out an exam or
work sheet. I have also observed that grade one and two teachers has
their own classes, and some of these clubs are in upper level, what

really choked that while they move from one class to other there is no
guides from their teacher, which make a difficulty in students
movement between up and low level of school, and wasting the first
time of each class.
The innovation of management that I suggest to improve in my
school is internal challenge, by organizing the structure of grade one
classes, to keep kids in lower level ground. The challenge that the kids
in grade one and two used to go upstairs to have art class, and they
move to upper level with no guide from their class teacher, even no
teacher assistant to line them up and take them to the art class, and
they have art twice a week, and that is dangerous for them as it puts
them under health safety risk, they may push each other on the stairs,
or they could run and fall with no young person to organize their lining
up. Also when they used to move from one class to other, they lose the
time at the beginning of class.
In terms of managing this challenge, I should set up a plan for the
structure of the kids classrooms. The structure should include creating
the physical learning environment and organizing the day to be
responsive to childrens needs and to make the best use of time. As
they are kids of grade one and two, and their ages between 5 to 7, and
they cant organize themselves in lining up while moving between
class and other, also they use the stairs with no teacher to observe
them, so the level of teachers responsibility increases in guiding them.
Teachers assume that when they own classes and the students have to
move, because this is easier for them to find out their sources
whenever they need during the class time, but this effect on students,
especially in this case they are kids of grade one and two.
Kids classrooms have to be different, and will be shaped and reshaped
as childrens new interests and needs emerge, and to keep them down

with a comfort class students learning and teachers teaching, they

can combine three classes are open to each other , which mean they
all connected with opened door, to be for grade one environment for
learning in lower level ground. The teachers who taught grade one has
to set and organize these classes to fit their needs and their students
need.
Considering a space for children and teachers to store their work and
personal belongings like cubbies, storage bins, or baskets, and place
for group meeting should be large enough so children can sit
comfortably, with stores for the materials for organizing them logically
which enables children and teachers to find them when needed and
return them to their proper place afterward (Dominic F. Gullo, nd).
The implementation of this new structure of classes within the
facilitating of new organization for kids to learn could begin in January
2017, the beginning of new term, or in August 2017 for next New Year
semester. As it need to work on deeply to provide the new structure,
and to suggest this idea for the school, I have to meet the principal
first and give her the adequate and convincing reasons for this kind of
change, to get the fund later from the Ministry of Education which is
education zone, after studying this plan carefully, and manage the
change, in a way that lead to enabling comfort environment for
education of the child, avoiding any unexpected harm.
In conclusion, strong school leadership is extremely important to the
overall change process. School reform often need leadership that is
able to implement structural changes which support the development
of educational environments where teachers and students can perform
successfully, and the principal of Zahrat Almadaen is director for public
sector schools in Ras Al Khaimah, which help to study this challenge of
innovation in classes structure in a wide range of schools and see how

it can achieve the facilities which can be provided for effective child's
educational environment.

References:
Alhebsi, A., Pettaway, L., & Waller, L. (2015). A History of Education in
the United Arab Emirates and Trucial Shiekdoms. The Global eLearning
Journal, 4(1).
Alnabah, N. (1996). Education in the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi,
UAE: Alflah .
Alrawi, M. (1996). Education in the UAE. Abu Dhabi, UAE: Alflah.
Bush, T. (1998) The National Professional Qualification for Headship:
the key to effective school leadership?, School Leadership and
Management, 18(3) 32134.
Davidson, C. M. (2008). From traditional to formal education in the
lower Arabian Gulf, 1870-1971. Journal of History of Education Society ,
37(5), 633-643.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00467600701430020

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