Education leaders in the Gulf are familiar with international benchmark tests like the PIRLS, TIMSS, and PISA. Most are also familiar with the reality that, despite massive financial investments in education on the part of GCC states, their test scores remain comparatively low. Cognitive neuroscience, believes Dr. Abadzi, may shed light on why Arab students fall behind students from other nations at such early stages in their education.
Soraya Sikander exhibited work at the 2016 Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival. Here, she shares her thoughts on abstract art and why Ras Al Khaimah’s beautiful landscapes and seascapes continue to inspire her.
Al Qasimi Foundation visiting scholar Matthew Maclean presented his research on important historical sites in Ras Al Khaimah and how they can be integrated into present-day life to retain the unique character of the emirate.
GEMS, a major private school operator, is offering shares to teachers across the region in a bid to keep them for the long term. Growing competition within private schools has spawned a buyers’ market for teachers. Dr. Natasha Ridge said it was good to encourage employee ownership of a company but there was no evidence to suggest that it would result in better quality education.
Doctoral Scholar Matt MacLean tells the story of the first road between the emirates, which connected Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah beginning in the 1960s. The implications of this road involved international politics and national identity. Moreover, the significance of mobility in the UAE has not decreased in the years of development since that road was paved.
Travel across the UAE these days has been greatly eased thanks to the construction of world-class highways that connect the country, but for the first such highway built from Dubai to Ras Al Khaimah in the 1960s, the story was anything but simple. The Al Qasimi Foundation's doctoral scholar Mr. Matthew MacLean shares this story.
The UAE's transient population presents a challenge for education planning. Expatriates come and go all the time, making it difficult to predict the number of places needed at the private schools that teach their children. Due to changes in the economy, many schools simply don’t know which students will be coming back in September after the summer break. This editorial suggests ways to support education quality in these communities.
Private schools face a battle to survive amid competition for fewer pupils and the need to raise salaries to attract the best teachers. The Al Qasimi Foundation's Dr. Natasha Ridge explains that this means there will be more downward pressure on profit margins at private schools, which could lead to lower-income schools stuck in a vicious cycle in which they cannot attract good teachers and so standards decline. Implications for education here are extensive.
Dr. Natasha Ridge weighs in on what new survey findings may tell us about Arab youth and their thoughts on unemployment. While education is directly linked to unemployment, this survey does not look at that dimension of the youth experience.
This book offers an in-depth study to readers interested in researching the effects of globalization within the Arabian Gulf States and the way this cultural revolution has created emerging roles for women while it stresses that gender stereotypes broaden the economic and social gap within the Arabian Gulf States.