Between 9th and 13th January, 2011, the Knowledge Management sector of The Office of Strategic Affairs at the Abu Dhabi Education Council(ADEC), together with personnel from the ADEC Private Schools & Quality Assurance division, trained staff from 137 private schools in the Abu Dhabi region in the process required to complete the Private Schools Database. This took place at the ADEC Regional Office in Abu Dhabi. Schools were shown the system, which gathers information on a number of areas including student numbers, specialist facilities available and contact information, and each school was provided with a detailed guide to enable them to enter the data independently. Schools who required additional support, were given the opportunity to visit ADEC, where staff would be on hand to assist them in completing the process. It is envisaged that all schools will have concluded the logging of their record by the end of January, 2011. Judith Finnemore, the member of the Private Schools team who organized the training, noted that all private schools in the region will be expected to maintain their record through a process of continual updating. ‘It will be a valuable tool to enable many sectors of the Private Schools Division to access important data far more efficiently,’ she noted.
The database project aims to collect vital, operational data on all private schools in the region. Mr Yousif Al Sheryani, Executive Director of Private Schools & Quality Assurance at ADEC, noted that the system will enable the ADEC Private Schools sector to make accurate instructional decisions and ensure all parts of the sector are efficiently and effectively serviced from a central, current record. The data obtained from schools will also assist ADEC in developing appropriate plans for rapid and properly considered development of private schools in the emirate of Abu Dhabi and enable the schools themselves to reflect on the best way forward to reach the goal of educating their students in an environment that facilitates optimum educational success. Jennifer Watt from Al Shohub School stated the training was ‘very useful and straightforward’ and the Easy Step Guide issued at the training would be very helpful. Dalia Kamal from Gulf International Academy affirmed the usefulness of the training sessions, noting it was fairly similar to another programme the school was investigating, so the Private Schools database would assist the school in making more informed decisions.
The compilation of this database is the first stage in a gradual move towards all schools being part of the eSIS system. This is an enterprise-wide administrative tool that tracks all aspects of a student’s K-12 educational career, including, but not limited to: demographics, schedules and grades, attendance, discipline, and special education. With eSIS in place ADEC will be able to track students across schools, a tool particularly useful when students transfer at points in their school career, and analyse statistical information related to public and private schools.
For schools, the program will transform administrative processes, including making timetabling processes far simpler and greatly increasing the speed and accuracy of reporting student grades. Mr Al Sheryani stated that schools need to monitor student progress to ensure that all students are successful in attaining required standards, while teachers need to assess the indicators they are responsible for teaching on an ongoing basis so that they will know where their students are at any given time in relationship to those indicators being monitored.
