Teachers in government schools will be allowed
to offer private tutoring for the first time in a new drive to improve
standards.
Fawzia Gharib, assistant undersecretary for
school operations at the Ministry of Education, told that the authority will
licence teachers to offer one-on-one lessons.
Teachers will be able to register to take part
and will be financially rewarded for doing so by the ministry. They will not
provide tutoring for pupils at their own schools.
The scheme applies only to public schools and
is not being offered in private schools.
The move represents a shift in policy. Private
tuition is currently banned but many teachers offer to tutor for cash-in-hand
despite that.
The decision was announced in a circular
distributed by the ministry to schools.
Ms Gharib said tutoring should never be a
"profit-making" exercise.
“There is a difference between profit-making
private lessons and private lessons where the goal is to enrich pupils’
knowledge and enhance their academic skills,” said Ms Gharab.
“We don’t want parents to pay between Dh150 and
Dh300 for one hour of private tutoring, we want to provide children with access
to more learning that is adequate to their needs,” she said. She said that the
UAE is determined to develop a top-class education system and is providing
additional tuition to drive up standards without forcing parents to pay the
cost.
Ms Gharib said that the scheme targets pupils
who require more attention to certain topics.
“For example, if a pupil was weak in
mathematics, they will receive private lessons to help improve their performance
in math, not in all subjects, because he is only weak in this subject.”
Once the pupil has improved their performance,
the private tutoring will stop, she said.
She said that only qualified teachers among
those who register via the online “Teach for the UAE” platform, will be chosen
to provide the service.
“We don’t aim to burden the teacher, nor the
pupil with extra hours, therefore the lessons will be added to the teachers’
classes but during the school day.”
Budgets have been allocated to reward teachers
who take part, while their participation will also be taken into consideration
during performance evaluations.
“If their evaluations were exceeding
expectations, those teachers will also have priority in promotions,” she said.
Ms Gharib said she expects parents to welcome
the initiative.
“We don’t want education to turn into a trade,”
she said.
Teachers are able to register to become
licensed private tutors online, by visiting the Teach For UAE website.
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