NEW UAE MINISTER OF EDUCATION SETS OBJECTIVES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 000782

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/PPD AND R/FO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/01/2016
TAGS: KPAO AE
SUBJECT: NEW UAE MINISTER OF EDUCATION SETS OBJECTIVES


Classified By: Ambassador Michele J. Sison, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) Summary: PAO's call on new UAE Minister of Education,
Dr. Hanif Hassan, elicited teacher training and English
language preparation as priorities of the ministry. In
parallel development, the perceived need for "stricter
controls of private schools" has prompted the Ministry of
Education's seizure of a U.S. 6th grade social studies
textbook for allegedly presenting Muslims in a negative light
-- a story widely covered in local press. End summary.


2. (U) PAO paid a call on newly-appointed Minister of
Education Dr. Hanif Hassan, vice president of the all-women's
Zayed University, former International Visitor participant
and close PA contact on February 26. Dr. Hanif talked about
challenges of his new position and said that it is
unfortunate the entire system of K-12 can,t be scrapped
since it is hard to change what has been in place over the
last 30 years.

UAE PRIORITIES: TEACHER TRAINING AND ENGLISH
--------------


3. (U) Dr. Hanif's top two priorities are teacher training
and English language preparation. He identified teacher
training as the greatest challenge. Only 40% of Emirati
nationals who work as teachers have college degrees. The
plan is for Abu Dhabi emirate to build a training center and
administer teacher training for the entire country.
(Comment: Government schools are slowly replacing the
foreign Arab teachers with Emiratis, but not enough young
nationals are entering teaching careers. The shortage is
particularly noticeable among the young male graduates who
have many other career options; only men can teach in the all
boys' schools. Foreign teachers come from other systems in
the Arab world and tend to carry with them and to pass on to
students their home country,s world view, a situation the
UAE would like to fix.)


4. (U) The second concern is English language training.
English is the language of instruction at Zayed University
and the Higher Colleges of Technology and the language of
humanities and social science departments at the UAE
University in Al-Ain. The national universities spend huge
proportions of their budgets on remedial English over the
first 1-2 years a student is at university due to the low
level of English taught in the K-12 system. Only after
students pass the English test can they start regular
classes. For the first time this year, passing an English
exam will be part of the college admission process. The
Ministry also initiated teaching 1st and 4th grade math and
science in English in order to introduce English language
preparation in elementary schools.

TEXTBOOK SEIZURE OVER PRESENTATION OF ISLAM:
CALL FOR MORE RIGOROUS MONITORING
--------------


5. (U) English daily Khaleej Times, February 27, published
the front page story "Textbook of American school in capital
seized over 'smell of racism'". According to the paper, over
100 copies of a social studies textbook "World Cultures" used
in 6th grade of an "upscale American school in Abu Dhabi"
were confiscated by the Ministry of Education February 26 for
allegedly presenting Islam and the Muslim countries including
Gulf states in a negative light while glorifying Israel.


6. (U) The paper quotes Assistant Under Secretary for Foreign
Private Education Juma Salami accusing the book of promoting
a hate culture: "While there are clamors for change in the
Middle East, one has to understand that these are the books
coming from the so-called 'free world'. This is a typical
example of how textbooks are used to manipulate the thoughts
of young minds.8 Minister of Education Dr. Hanif Hassan was
quoted calling for a more rigorous monitoring system to keep
an eye on the private schools and the "so-called embassy
schools" in the country would be implemented.


7. (SBU) PAO spoke with Ron Ford, superintendent of the
American International School (AIS) where the incident took
place. AIS is a private for-profit K-12 school offering an
American high school diploma. He said two women officials
from the Ministry appeared unannounced at the school with
photocopies of pages from the book. The books were a
resource in the four classrooms of the 6th grade, not used as
part of the teaching syllabus. Approximately 64 copies of
the book were seized and taken away. Ford said parents had
complained about the book before when they found pictures of
the Prophet Mohamed and these pages had been removed. Ford
said that all new books used in the school were sent
routinely to the Ministry for checking. Prior to this event
the school never received any feedback or approval. The
school checks the books but this one "slipped through".


8. (C) Ford said that he actually thought the Ministry had
legitimate objections and that the book had been in use at
AIS since 1998 and needed to be replaced.

RULES FOR FOREIGN SCHOOLS
--------------


9. (U) PAO also talked with the superintendent of the
American Community School (ACS),Dr. George Robinson, who
said that six schools of the 90 private schools in Abu Dhabi
were labeled as community schools (American, British, German,
French, Pakistan and Japanese) and that the rules were
different for these schools, which are all non-profits. He
carefully reviews the texts used at ACS but doesn,t send
them to the Ministry for vetting.


10. (C) Discussing the Minister,s comment about implementing
a more rigorous monitoring system, Robinson said a wide range
of quality exists among the private schools in Abu Dhabi, all
of which are "for-profit" institutions, except for the six
community schools. Many advertise themselves as "American
style" even though they have no American content or teachers.
The Ministry is asked to authenticate the diplomas from the
schools but, with its small staff of inspectors, is unable to
monitor quality. A/US Salami, quoted in the press, is his
main contact at the ministry and Robinson said Salami is
careful to try to distinguish between the schools which need
closer attention and those which are better at
self-regulating. Robinson tries to maintain an advising
relationship with the Ministry in order to help vet circulars
and new rulings before they are announced.


11. (C) Comment: Post has not yet discussed the issue of the
textbook seizure with the UAEG, but the Ministry of Education
clearly sees this decision to seize copies of a textbook
perceived as presenting a negative picture of Islam and
Muslims as part of its regulatory responsibility with regard
to foreign schools.
SISON