Teachers stressed the difficulty of their task in light of the many holidays and the short school day during Ramadan

Students call for reducing the curricula of the third semester

The intensity of the curricula increases pressure on students and contributes to a drop in their academic rates.

Photography: Najeeb Mohamed

The students of the concerned educational authorities called for reducing the curricula scheduled during the third semester, in order to reduce the burden on students and the educational field.

Teachers confirmed that the few days of schooling due to holidays, and the reduction of the number of hours of the school day to four hours during Ramadan, piled up school subjects on them, and made their task more difficult.

Parents of students in different educational stages expressed their fear of the short period of time for the current semester, which would result in their inability to finish their children reviewing the scheduled curriculum before exams, calling on educational authorities and private schools to reduce the density of curricula, and to take this into account when setting and correcting exams.

They stressed that the curricula scheduled for the third semester are large, and do not fit the actual number of days, which pushes for the intensification of private lessons, so that they can finish the syllabus and review in preparation for the exams;

They are required to specify the lessons to be completed in this semester, and to compel schools to continuously develop indicative models to assist students in training for exams.

In detail, high school students said that the density of the scheduled lessons is a recurring problem every semester, and it results in the teachers rushing to explain the lessons to finish the courses on time, which increases pressure on students and contributes to a decrease in their academic rates, demanding to reduce the density of study materials. In the third semester, to give students a chance to achieve better results.

They considered that the period of study scheduled in the third semester does not correspond to the topics to be studied during, as it is about 10 weeks, interspersed with 10 days of Eid al-Fitr vacation, and two and a half days a week off, in addition to the days designated for end-of-year exams, which last for at least two weeks. In addition to the days of mass absence that occurred at the end of Ramadan, and it is expected that it will be repeated before the exams.

Their opinion was supported by teachers, who emphasized that “the long vacations, the frequent mass absences before the holidays, and the reduction of the school day in Ramadan, along with the intensity and difficulty of the curricula, contribute every year to insufficient time to complete the academic courses, and negatively affect their ability to explain lessons to students, as they are forced to Often to expedite the explanation, and not to use cognitive aids, or to solve exercises on the lessons due to lack of time.

The teachers indicated the possibility of deleting a number of lessons scheduled within the current semester’s curriculum, similar to what happened last academic year, when a number of lessons were deleted, stressing that easing the curricula provides an opportunity for teachers to test the student’s comprehension of the information provided to him in the lessons.

It is worth noting that the Emirates Foundation for School Education directed the last academic year "2020-2021", school principals to delete a number of lessons from the third semester curriculum courses, to relieve students and teachers, so that they can finish courses and prepare for exams.

The Foundation confirmed that it is constantly studying any challenges that may prevent students from reaching the outputs required to take action, if necessary.

Curriculum content

The Department of Education and Knowledge confirmed that the school that proposes fundamental changes in the curricula must obtain the approval of the department, through the licensing process, and that the proposed changes comply with the approved curriculum standards and requirements, and these changes include: adding, deleting or modifying study materials or courses.

The department indicated in the "Private Schools Policies Manual", that the school's curriculum should provide a quality education that would help each student reach his maximum potential, regardless of his talent or ability, and the curriculum must expand and deepen in topics Study in a flexible manner and through different learning methods.

The curriculum must also provide many opportunities to link learning objectives to several subjects, in an appropriate and attractive manner, and be able to prepare students for success at the later educational level, in their future careers, and develop their higher-order thinking skills.

• Teachers: "A number of lessons scheduled within the current semester's curriculum can be deleted."

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