Abu Dhabi's education regulators have launched an annual school ratings system promoting transparency of schools' performance

To give parents a thorough understanding of the quality of national identity programmes and associated activities in private schools around the emirate, Abu Dhabi's education inspectors have introduced an annual school ratings system.

The first-of-its-kind National Identity Mark seeks to improve Emirati students' comprehension of UAE values, beliefs, and traditions by giving them a solid basis on which to navigate the global environment.

In line with its commitment to improve school openness, the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (Adek) hopes to enable parents to select the best learning environment for their children through promoting transparency in schools' performance.

The evaluation framework includes three core domains—culture, values, and citizenship—each with three pertinent aspects. One of the main areas of attention in the framework is culture, which covers history, tradition, and Arabic language. Respect, compassion, and knowledge of other cultures are values. Volunteering, conservation, and belonging are all aspects of citizenship.

The National Identity Mark rankings will be assessed independently from Adek's yearly Irtiqa'a Inspection, which examines the private schools in the Emirate's performance standards and offers suggestions for raising standards. Schools will be rated as 'excellent', 'good', 'acceptable', or 'weak' depending on the calibre of their national identity courses, with ratings for Phase 1 scheduled to be released at the conclusion of the current academic year.

In addition to giving schools the chance to improve and develop their national identity programmes, the implementation of the new rating system will assess curricula and school culture to help ensure educational equity, transparency, and accountability across all Abu Dhabi private schools that have nationals enrolled.

In the initial phase, Adek will give priority to the schools with the greatest enrollment of Emirati pupils. If a school has appropriate courses and activities that immerse international students in the nation's rich history, it might request an evaluation even if it doesn't have any native students enrolled.