During an extended session, the ADEC's senior management discussed the new scientific methodology aiming at measuring and raising the productive efficiency at schools. The new methodology was developed by ADEC's Research & Performance Management Division in collaboration with the Strategic Planning Office, School Development and Information Management. ADEC is intending to apply the methodology, being the first of its kind to be applied in the region, in order to measure schools' level of performance and improve their outcomes according to the highest international standards and best practices.
ADEC has developed this new methodology which is based on the Containment Analysis process in order to inspect the level of performance of each school and its needs of resources to achieve an optimum degree of excellence in line with ADEC's 10-year strategic plan. The Containment Analysis is a scientific process used by many advanced countries including: USA, UK, China, Spain, Switzerland, Finland, Greece, Cyprus, Japan and Singapore as indicated by research papers published in specialized refereed journals.

Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al-Khaili, ADEC's Director General, said, "the continuous performance evaluation of our schools is considered a milestone of ADEC strategy in order to ensure continuous measurement of students' achievement and provide the education sector with innovative initiatives and programs that enhance the learning and educational outcomes. This reflects ADEC's keenness to support schools and identify their needs in order to help improve their level of performance and enable them to compete with other schools and achieve excellence for the best interest of students."

"It's important to identify our students' performance level in accordance with the international benchmarks and best practices; thus, developing new and innovative methods of student assessment will help us explore the points of strengths and weaknesses in our programs which will enable us to carry out the necessary remedial & improvement measures," Dr Al- Khaili pointed out.

Dr. Masood Badri, ADEC's Director of Research and Performance Management said, "this methodology is based on a scientific linear programming concepts which helps us find optimal solutions for maximizing student outcomes and achievements, so that they would acquire the necessary skills that enable them to join prestigious institutions of higher education, within the UAE or abroad, without a need to participate in any foundation programs and compete in the local and international job market in line with Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030."

"The methodology also aims at evaluating the inputs of the educational process in terms of student and teacher average cost, classroom occupancy rate and teacher's workload," he added.

Dr. Badri indicated that many institutions depend on single standards when measuring their productive efficiency by relying on a single input measurement, such as student's cost, and single output, such as high school results. However, the new improved concept depends on multiple inputs and outputs in order to get a more accurate and comprehensive analysis, taking into account all the variables at the same time.

"When ranking the level of performance according to schools' results compared with student's average performance in a high school for instance, it might be unfair to other schools which did not achieve this level due to their limited resources. Therefore, both the input and output factors should be taken into account at the same time. Moreover, reliance on a single variable, whether input or output, will make it difficult to identify the best practices and top schools and may consequently result in lack of objectivity due to inconsideration of other variables," Dr. Badri added.

Dr. Badri emphasized that this improved model is capable of establishing a direct link between student outputs and school available resources. It can also help conduct a so-called Sensitivity Analysis, which leads to best exploitation of resources to achieve optimum results. As a result, ADEC can identify the additional resources required by a certain school in order to reach a high productive efficiency level.

The model would recommend reducing teacher's cost by 20% in order to raise the school's productive efficiency and leads to raise its ranking level. Eventually, the model can provide schools with specific guidelines, such as rationalizing expenditure or determining the required ratios to improve students' performance level.

Dr. Badri pointed out that this new methodology has been introduced to a group of school principals and was thoroughly discussed with them. Principals' interaction with regard to the analysis process and output exceeded the expectations. Although schools do not currently have full control over resources (student's and teacher's cost, etc), however, they have some sort of control over some inputs (teacher's daily workload, maximum number of students per class, students-teacher ratio); therefore, each school management can best utilize its resources in light of specific applied guidelines, so that the necessary measures to raise the productive efficiency all schools are taken.

"ADEC's departments concerned have developed this model to become a single integrated standard which can contribute directly to high performance and productivity levels in Abu Dhabi schools. It will also help education sector staff adopt a new philosophy that would optimize student performance level & achievements in light of resources available at each school. "All types of schools in Abu Dhabi, to include PPP, model, public and private schools, are in dire need to adopt and implement an improved measurement model to increase their level of productive efficiency," he concluded.