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Written by Petra Sander

Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC)

The Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) was established in 2005 as the educational authority for the emirate of Abu Dhabi. ADEC monitors courses and programs in Abu Dhabi schools and other educational institutes, offers support and assistance to schools and universities, and implements policies and procedures intended to improve the standard of education in Abu Dhabi. Since 2009 schools in Abu Dhabi are being inspected by ADEC.

In 2010 ADEC launched the New School Model (NSM). NSM will be rolled out in all ADEC schools within 6 years. NSM implementation includes the introduction of bilingual teaching methods, modern learning sources and effective assessment tools.

The model is driven by a Student-Centered Learning approach, the design of world-class school facilities based upon the highest international standards, the technology-rich learning environment and a proactive approach that ensures the health, safety, and well-being of all students. In addition to the physical learning environment, the NSM focuses on continuous training of teachers to enable them to observe students’ performance and treat them as free thinkers and independent learners via applying the concept of the ’whole child philosophy’. Information and Communication Technology will be available in classrooms to support the learning experience. It will enable children to interact with their learning environment in creative, innovative, and informative way.

Click here to use ADEC's school finder, where you can search by region, location, school type, curriculum, gender and grade.

On our own list of schools you will only find private schools which have a website. Furthermore we made a list of nurseries, which currently are not being inspected.

There are so many schools in the Abu Dhabi region - private and public - as well as different curriculums to choose from that it might look like a daunting task to you to find that perfect school for your child or children. You will find the most common international curriculum schools in the UAE to be the MoE (Ministry of Education), UK National Curriculum and the Indian Curriculum. Here are some explanations of the most common abbreviations and curriculums:

American

Each state and school board is responsible for developing their own curriculum; there is no single, national framework. Most of the States use the same age requirements for grade levels. Elementary School: from Pre-Kindergarten (age 4-5) to Grade 5 (age 10-11). Middle School from Grade 6 to Grade 8 (age 13-14). High School has Grade 9 (Freshman/ age 14-15), Grade 10 (Sophomore/ age 15-16), Grade 11 (Junior/ age 16-17) and Grade 12 (Senior/ age 17-18).

Arabic / MoE

The Arabic curriculum follows the syllabus prescibed by the UAE Ministry of Education and the medium of teaching is Arabic. The new curriculum will aim to deliver a bi-literate education to prepare students to read, write, speak and comprehend both Arabic and English with a high degree of fluency. Literacy in both languages is essential to the personal success of Abu Dhabi’s students in both higher education and their future careers. A number of educators with professional teaching licenses have been hired from abroad to facilitate the introduction of modern pedagogic methods and native English language fluency. The New School Model will be implemented in phases, starting with KG-Grade 3 in the 2010-11 school year, and eventually to be implemented in all grade levels by 2016.

Canadian

The Canadian system follows the KG till 12 system.

CBSE

The Central Board of Secondary Education is a board of school education in India. It prepares the syllabus for students from Lower Kindergarten to class 12. Medium of teaching is either Hindi or English. It conducts two board examinations for class 10 and 12.

FBIS

The Federal Board of Islamabad (Pakistan) follows the system of two years of kindergarten, KG1 and KG2 followed by another 12 years of schooling. Medium of teaching is English and/or Urdu.

French

The French curriculum is divided into 4 stages. Maternelle (Kindergarten) age 3 to 5, Primere (Primary) age 6 to 10, College (Secondary) age 11 to 14 and Lycee (Higher Secondary) age 15 to 18. The medium of teaching is French.

IB

The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO), is an international educational foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1968 in Geneva, IB offers three educational programmes for children ages 3–19. Primary Years Programme (age 3-12), Middle Years Programme (age 11-16) and Diploma Programme (age 16-19). Please do click through to www.ibo.org for more details.

ICSE

The Indian Certificate of Secondary Education for class 10 in English.

IGCSE

The International General Certificate of Secondary Education is an international qualification for school students developed by University of Cambridge International Examinations. It provides a broad range of subjects from a variety of areas such as Language, Humanities, Social Aciences, Mathematics, Creatve, Technical and Vocational.

SABIS

The SABIS school network provides Pre-K and K-12 sudents with a rigorous, college-preparatory education which challenges the boundaries of individual student potential.

SSLC

The Secondary School Leaving Certificate is an Indian education system meaning ten years of school education (primary and secondary), two years of intermediate or pre-university education and three years of university education.

UK National Curriculum

The curriculum content is standardized across all of the regions in the UK. It is organized into various subjects and topics. All aspects of the curriculum are clearly laid out at a national level so individual schools and teachers can plan and deliver lessons in a consistent manner. The UK National Curriculum is used in many international school settings in countries around the world and is categorized by key stages of learning: Foundation Stage Preschool until end of Reception (age 3-5), Key Stage 1 Years 1-2 (age 6-7), Key Stage 2 Years 3-6 (age 7-11), Key Stage 3 Years 7-9 (age 11 – 14), Key Stage 4 Years 10-11 (age 14 – 16) and Key Stage 5 Years 12-13 (age 16-18). At the end of each key stage, children are assessed formally with externally-marked tests called S.A.T.’s (Standardized Attainment Tests) with nationally posted results.

See also the website of BSME - British Schools in the Middle East for more details.