January 13, 2025 • 33 mins
The episode explores ADEK's introduction of 39 new policies aimed at enhancing education in Abu Dhabi. These policies focus on collaboration, student well-being, and cultural relevance.
Sylvie Wald discusses the comprehensive approach to policy-making that incorporates feedback from schools, ensuring that the new guidelines meet the needs of both educators and students.
• Introduction to the guest, Sylvie Wald, and her role at ADEK
• Overview of the policy-making process and its emphasis on collaboration
• Discussion on the new focus on student well-being in the policies
• Cultural considerations taken into account during the policy formulation
• Insights into the new ICT and technology policy and its relevance
• Balancing local cultural norms with global educational standards
• Anticipated impacts on student development and school dynamics
• Challenges faced by schools during the implementation of new policies
Bio: Sylvie is the Education Policy Office Director at ADEK, where she oversees the development of policies for early education institutions (EEI) and private schools in Abu Dhabi. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the field of education, particularly in academic publishing and higher and K-12 education policy.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylvie-wald-09414a50/details/education/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey everyone, this is Lisa Grace, and welcome back to
the Teach Middle East podcast,or better yet, welcome If this
is your first time listening.
Today I have Sylvie Wald on thepodcast with me Now.
Sylvie is the Education PolicyOffice Director for ADEC.
I think I got all of that right, did I, sylvie?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Absolutely.
It is a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It is a mouthful.
Now.
Adec is a familiar place to me.
As everyone knows, I worked forADEC for many years, and so to
be talking to someone from ADECobviously not from my time is
always good, because I'm alwayslike what's the office goss, who
left who's there?
But I won't be doing that today.
Today we're on serious business, because we want to talk about
(00:59):
the new policies that have beenupdated, and we're not talking
about one policy or two policies.
You know.
We're talking about 39 policiesand 27 new early education
policies, so it is a policyfiesta today.
Welcome to the podcast, sylvie.
Thank you for having me.
(01:19):
Okay, now here's the thing abouttalking on this podcast Our
guests love to know who we'retalking to.
So before we talk about policy,which guys?
You guys know it's a bit dry,isn't it?
But we have to learn because wehave to follow policy.
Sylvie, where did your careerbegin?
Where are you from?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I'm actually French.
I have a French father, aKorean mother.
I grew up as an expat child inHong Kong as well as in France,
so being in Abu Dhabi actuallyspeaks to me very much, because
a lot of the students for whomwe're creating these policies to
make sure that they've got kindof the best of the best that
(01:59):
education has to offer is, youknow, I see myself in these kids
.
So that's kind of where Istarted.
But in terms of my trajectory,of course I didn't study
education in the beginning.
I was actually looking tobecome a doctor and then, after
a couple of you knowprofessional pathway changes,
here and there, I found mycalling, which is education
(02:20):
policy.
It's an area of policy in thearea, like you said, it is dry,
oftentimes it's just.
You said it is dry, oftentimesit's just.
You know, it's like readingterms and conditions, but I am
extremely passionate about this.
It's something that alwaysbaffles my colleagues, but there
we go.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, it's interesting because we always do
it.
So I used to be a principalwith ADHC and we always used to
say, according to the policyguys, this is what we ought to
do.
And then we always used to getthese policies and we used to
read them through and thenformulate, obviously, the
policies for our schools basedon the ADDIC policies.
So when you're formulatingpolicies, what is the process
(02:59):
that you go through?
Give me the skinny version.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Sure.
So I'm really happy to do that,because I think now at Addict
we really have a robust and,more than anything, the keyword
is collaborative we have areally collaborative approach to
making sure that we'redeveloping policies.
I think a lot of you know mycolleagues, policymakers all
around the world, willabsolutely agree with me when I
(03:23):
say the worst kind of policiesare those that are just imposed
top down.
That you know.
Some people say this is what weneed to do, and then, you know,
a law or policy or some pieceof legislation is issued, and
then schools find themselves onthe other end being like wait,
but I can't do this in my school, it doesn't work in my context,
and so and the research showsas well anytime you see any sort
(03:45):
of you know policyrecommendation about you know
situations where a certainpolicy has been borrowed from
one area or benchmarked withanother region, one of the
biggest policy recommendationsis always make sure that it has
been contextualized locally, andso, from that standpoint, we
have put collaboration as thekeystone in our policy process.
(04:06):
So we made sure, I mean, had wejust gone ahead and thought,
okay, our policies from 2014,the old school policies, these
are, you know, we know they're alittle bit out of date, they're
using terminology we no longeruse, they're not covering
subject areas that we think arenow applicable.
And having just a small groupof people decide that we could
have finished this project insix months, that is not what we
(04:27):
wanted to do.
We wanted to make sure thatwhatever we were going to have
replaced those old policies wereco-owned with our schools.
So instead we embarked on athree-year journey where we
started this all off with a bigsurvey.
We reached out to schools.
We said hey guys, here are theold policies, what do you think
of them?
(04:48):
So you know, we got theirfeedback, okay, and we wanted to
ask them how relevant are they?
What do you think of thecoverage of the policies?
Do you find them clear?
Do you like the structure?
Are they feasible in terms ofimplementing them in your
schools?
These kinds of questions.
So we got phenomenal feedbackon that initial survey, which we
then said, okay, let's go intoit a little bit more deeply.
(05:08):
So we had a series of focusgroups as well, with as many
schools as wanted to come andspeak to us to learn a little
bit more about what they thoughtof the old policies, and that
kind of kicked off a longjourney where we then looked at
the old policies and at thattime we actually had 81.
It was one manual, but it had81 different policies, and so
(05:29):
what we did was we just, youknow, we've merged, here and
there We've added new policies,but sometimes we've also deleted
old policies, which is why wenow have 39.
It's a less daunting number,but nonetheless it does reflect
all of that work that wasoriginally present, so to speak.
So, in terms of again makingsure that they were
collaborative, we then engagedin a process where we grouped
(05:51):
those 81 policies into about 40different areas and then, for
each policy, we also had asurvey sent around to schools
every single school.
We also then did focus groups,and it was on a volunteering
basis.
We invited everyone to come andgive us feedback on that
specific policy, and in somecases we had all schools
attending.
In some cases, you know, someschools were not interested in
(06:13):
financial audit policy.
They were like we can skip thisone.
So it really was flexible inorder to make sure that schools
could voice their opinions wherethey feel that it was necessary
.
On top of that sorry, I knowyou're probably ready to move on
to the next- question.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm not, I linger.
I linger for the actual valuein what you're saying.
So you carry on, becauseschools want to know how this
really takes place.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, this will be for the public, because schools
already know no no, no, remember, Adek is Abu Dhabi, but schools
.
Us all over yes.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So, yeah, so it wasn't.
We didn't just stop there.
We then made sure of course,all of these policies involved
other types of stakeholders.
If we had policies related tothe health sector, we made sure
we worked with the healthauthorities and reviewing them
as well.
If it was related totransportation, you know,
whatever it might be.
So we had about 15 differentregulators also work with us on
reviewing all the differentpolicies.
(07:10):
Not only that, we also had alarger kind of investor workshop
to understand, you know, fromtheir perspective, what are, and
of course we didn't do it sofrequently with them, but it was
a bigger session where we cameand talked more generally about
the policies.
We also did a few parentsessions as well.
And then for different policieswe had so for within those kind
(07:31):
of 40 or so groups, we hadsurveys.
But we also did additionalfollow-up focus groups.
So we invited schools and wetold them okay, not only you
know they, obviously ourcommunication is with the school
leadership but we said bringyour practitioners.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the career and university
guidance policy.
Well then, bring your careerand university guidance
counselor.
Today we're going to be talkingabout mental health Well then,
(07:53):
bring your counselor, whateverit might be.
You know, inclusion bring your.
You know, at that time we calledthem SENCOs, et cetera.
So it was a work where wereally dealt into each policy
from a technical perspective,practitioner's perspective as
well as leadership perspectiveand made sure that we captured
as much of the feedback aspossible, moving on.
(08:13):
Once we actually drafted thoseand had those reviewed as well
by our partner regulators.
We then went back to schoolsand we said, okay, guys, we now
actually have a draft.
So we want to know how many ofyou are actually interested in
doing some of the more hardcorework with us, which is reviewing
the text of the draft itself.
We were really lucky because ofthe when we started, we had
(08:35):
about 203 schools.
At that time, ninety nineschools volunteered to be part
of what we call the principalworking group, and obviously we
can have all 19 on at the sametime.
So each time we reviewed adraft of the policy, we selected
about 20 or so principals on afirst come, first serve basis,
but also we did a randomselection to make sure there was
(08:58):
representation in each of thoseprincipal working groups in
order to represent the diversityof curricula, fee ranges, the
size of school, et cetera.
So then we worked with those 20principals, we sent them a copy
of the draft.
They read them in advance, andthen we spent the sessions
(09:19):
getting their final feedback.
Does the text make sense to you?
Is it clear?
Is it worded in a way thatworks for you?
Will this be feasible in yourschool?
Can you implement it?
No, if not, how can we amend it?
So this is three years later.
This is where we are.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
How did you come down to 39?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
That's a very good question.
Again, we worked on making surethat it made sense from a user
perspective as well.
So you know there are differenttopics, of course.
We you know they're kind ofthree general buckets.
There's anything concerningkind of operations of the school
and governance as well.
There's teaching and learningrelated policies, and then
(09:57):
others that are more kind ofhealth, safety and well-being
related and learning relatedpolicies, and then others that
are more kind of health, safetyand well-being related.
And it's hard to kind of putthem in buckets because a lot of
them actually address all areas.
You know, for example,well-being.
That's an area where you knowit is let's we put it it's
primarily in the health andwell-being bucket, but there are
aspects of governance.
You need to have a well-beingcommittee.
You need to make sure that youyou know your school have a
(10:19):
well-being strategy in placethat's reviewed by the board, et
cetera.
And then it also affects, ofcourse, teaching and learning,
because we're talking aboutmaking sure that well-being you
know children's well-being andsocial, emotional learning.
These are all aspects that arealso embedded into the
curriculum.
So you know, it was really justabout looking at the different
categories and seeing, okay,well, how and again.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
This is always fluid too, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So at this point, for example, we had at that time
with the old policy.
There was a separate one onattendance, another one on
admissions, another one ongraduation, on promotion,
whatever it might be.
So those, for example, we said,well, it's all kind of related
to student administrativeaffairs and things like that.
So we grouped them into astudent administrative affairs
policy.
Others, for example, aroundcounseling services.
(11:03):
That was an old policy.
That was very kind of generalin terms of you need to have
counseling services.
It'd be a good idea if you hadcareer counseling as well, but
it's not really required.
You know, have fun with that.
Again, you know those policieswere written at a different time
.
They were starter policies andthey really worked well for that
setting.
But we saw that and we said, ok, we need to separate out, for
(11:25):
example, social emotionalcounseling versus career and
university counseling, which isvery, very targeted.
So we split that policy up intotwo.
Career and university is nowits own, and anything related to
social emotional that we putinto both the student mental
health policy and there's also astaff wellbeing policy, so
integrated in different ways?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and there are policies for early education 27
of them and did you follow thesame process in formulating and
ratifying those policies as well?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So the early education policies came about a
year after we began with theschool policies.
The priority, of course, was torevise the existing policies.
But a year later, actually, oneof the things that we also
noticed well, not that wenoticed, but that has been that
we've been aware of for a whilethat we said we actually need to
(12:19):
make sure we do this, thatwe've been aware of for a while,
that we said we actually needto make sure we do this, is to
actually have policies for whatwe're now just calling nurseries
.
But we said, okay, well, thissector is an area that really,
you know, we're going to begrowing this in the next couple
of years and you've seen, in thepast year there's kind of been
an explosion of the earlyeducation scene.
So to really supplement that,there was a priority to okay,
(12:39):
let's not wait until we'refinished with the school
policies, let's kind of jumpstraight into the early
education institutions policiesas well.
So that we had a slightlytighter deadline as well.
So we weren't able to do it inexactly the same way, but
nonetheless we started bydrafting all of the policies.
We started with a smaller groupas a sample about 40 of the 200
(13:00):
plus nurseries and we reallykind of shaped them a little bit
more again, given the timeconstraints, but then really
made sure that by the time wehad the policies in place, we
organized a huge event inDecember 2023, where we invited
all the nurseries as well tocome inform them, share the
policies with them and informthem of what was to come, and
(13:21):
use that session really togather their feedback.
And once that was done as well,we spent the latter part of this
year.
We actually had soft launches,so we shared them internally
with schools and separately withnurseries earlier on in the
year.
What we did then was engage ina series of training sessions so
that they were kind of all upto date on that.
But one of the fantasticaspects that came out of those
(13:46):
training sessions was we hadabout 5,000 participants 4,000
from school and a little bitmore about 1,000 or so from the
nurseries and they asked us suchwonderful questions and we had
a live Q&A.
We had a team on hand answeringtheir questions.
But we said, ok, we don't justwant to leave these questions as
is.
There's some really pertinentthings and really pertinent
feedback that we really believeshould be integrated into the
(14:08):
policy, and so we also use thatas an opportunity to update the
policies before they went public.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
OK, and so when you talk about ADDIC's support of
schools and EEIs in achievingthese policies, you did touch on
that a little, but how farreaching is that support?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
So, first of all, we startedoff with these training sessions
and we'll continue doing thesebecause these are extremely
important, of course, forleadership as well as for
practitioners.
So, again, it was kind of morelimited, but we absolutely plan
moving forward in 2025 to haveother opportunities whether it's
these live events or otherresources for these kinds of
(14:49):
trainings for each policy tocontinue.
Not only that, but we are alsodeveloping other resources to
help support them.
So each policy will also have apolicy guide attached to it.
So if you want to compare, let'ssay, the old 2014 policies with
the new ones, those werewritten in a way where it told
(15:10):
you what you needed to do, sowhat's actual policy?
But there's also guidance there.
So it was like you need to makesure to have, as I mentioned
earlier, have counselingservices for your students.
So that's technically arequirement.
So that's technically arequirement.
So that's a policy.
And then there were some goodrecommendations on best practice
.
You know it would be good ideato have a counselor in your
school.
It'd be a good idea to alsoprovide career guidance services
(15:33):
, but those were notrequirements.
Those are kind of best practiceand recommendations, and so what
we did with this new policysince what we're kind of aiming
for was clarity, was strip awayeverything so that the policies
only focus on requirements forschools and everything else,
which is more around guidance,giving them best practice,
recommendations, advice andwhatnot we're now externalizing
(15:55):
that into a policy guide so thatthey're not having to filter
okay, what do I need to do,versus oh God, this is just
extra text in here, and whatnot.
So yeah, the next year, all thepolicies will also have policy
guides, and this is for the 27EEI policies and for the school
policies.
The majority of them will haveguides.
Some of them will also comeexternally.
We've got documents coming fromour regulatory partners that
(16:19):
will serve as guides insteaddocuments coming from our
regulatory partners that willserve as guides instead.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, that's very, very key, because I remember the
old policies and there were alot in there and we weren't sure
what's the requirement and whatis an actual advice or
suggestion.
So this new policy, these 39,when you look at them, you know
that your school is required tostick to this policy, as it is
mandated.
Talk to me about theconsideration, then, that you
(16:48):
have made when it comes on toformulating the policies against
you know the cultural norms ofAbu Dhabi, because Abu Dhabi is
a peculiar beast.
Like.
I lived in Al Ain for manyyears.
Shout out to Al Ain, myfavorite city, and then I
obviously moved to.
Abu Dhabi is a peculiar beast.
Like.
I lived in Al Ain for manyyears.
Shout out to Al Ain, myfavorite city, and then I
obviously moved to Abu Dhabicity, and it is not the same
(17:08):
place.
I know that sounds weird, butAl Ain is a whole different
place compared to Abu Dhabi.
How did you like look at thepolicies in terms of their
cultural nuances?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
I just realized also, before Ido answer, that I forgot to
mention one very important thingwhich supports your latter
question is that also, not onlywill there be kind of resources
this is a little bit morepassive, if you will but we also
actively have teams going intoschools to support them with
their readiness.
So one way we're alsosupporting them is we know this
(17:43):
is going to be superoverwhelming for them 39 new
policies that they have toimplement so we worked with them
and said, guys, what would helpyou?
So already we got theirfeedback in terms of how we can
actively help, but the mostimportant thing is actually
we're releasing them now.
They've had them since January,but the compliance states don't
kick in until next year formost of them.
So this is a new concept thatdidn't exist in the previous
(18:06):
policies, but the idea was togive them essentially a grace
period to implement thosepolicies, because we know it
takes time, it takes resources,they're not going to be able to
do it overnight.
So that was our first way ofreally providing support, saying
, guys, you do have the time tobe able to transition into it.
Not only that, though we'reproviding them with other than
the resources that I mentionedsupport visits.
So we have different teams.
(18:27):
For example, our inclusion teamis they're visiting schools
individually and looking at eachschool in their own context to
not only say, ok, well, how areyou meeting the policy, how are
you just preparing them so thatthey are ready to be compliant
by the next academic year, bywhich you know that it will be a
little bit more high stakes.
So there's a lot of supportvisits happening that are being
(18:50):
handled by the differenttechnical teams within ADEC as
well.
So I did just want to mentionthat.
On your point about the culturalkind of considerations for Abu
Dhabi, this was so important tous because we do live in a
context where, you know, I mean,let's think about it this
country is only, you know, 53years old.
It's, in the larger scheme ofthings, it's very new.
(19:13):
It's a very new country and weknow, having been here you have
been here as well as long as youhave that there has been so
much change that has happened inthe last 10, 15, 20 years.
You know, even for people whohave been here for five years,
they've noticed a significantshift in what's going on, and so
(19:40):
I think it's fair to say thatUAE nationals, they're
experiencing cultural changesthat are happening at the speed
of light.
You know, between theirgrandparents' generations to
their parents, to, you know, thestudents of today, there are
major, major generational shiftsthat have happened, and so one
of the things that, as well, ourpolicy is so mindful of is to
make sure that, in the midst ofall this, there is always a root
in the local culture and theUAE's cultural norms and values,
(20:01):
and making sure that thepolicies do respect UAE cultural
norms and values and traditions, because these are something
that really makes the UAEeducational system what it is
being rooted in.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That, yeah, I love the fact that you considered the
schools and gave that graceperiod, because there is nothing
worse than getting a policywith an overnight enactment
clause and you're like, oh myGod, how do I you know?
But let's unpack a little bitsome of the policies.
So I've heard a lot about thenew ICT in technology policy and
(20:36):
I don't want to put you like onthe spot to explain the policy.
But there's been a lot of talkabout that policy and I don't
know why I haven't fully read it.
I read parts of it.
Why do you think there's such abuzz around that particular
policy item?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's a very good question.
Well, I think again, this is apolicy that is so relevant to
our day and age and,interestingly enough, in 2014,
we did have a policy that thedigital policy was built on.
It had a fantastic name and Imentioned this all the time.
You know, if schools arelistening to this, they'll say
(21:15):
oh God, here she goes again withthis story.
I can't remember the actualname of the policy, but it was
something like you know policy Idon't know, 42, protecting
students against the dangers ofthe global information network,
and then, in parentheses, theInternet.
So this was kind of how weapproached things back in 2014,
which was okay.
(21:35):
There's a thing called theInternet.
We know schools have to engagewith it and we're kind of
fearful of it, which is whywe're like we have to protect
students against this.
You know, and it was there wasmaybe two paragraphs in that old
policy.
Today, I think, we are aware ofthe fact that we have to be even
more wary of the digital space.
(21:56):
However, that's only from asafeguarding perspective.
There's so many benefits and wecannot have our students lag
behind in the area of digitalcompetencies.
So that policy has really beenrewritten with keeping that in
mind, making sure that it'sreally about making sure that
students are building theirdigital competencies and that
(22:17):
schools also have in place youknow, that they're working on a
digital strategy for themselvesthat works for themselves, that
addresses all those differentareas while, of course,
simultaneously and let's youknow, more than anything else
making sure that they areprotected in the digital space.
So, yes, it's not just about youknow, digital competencies and
digital safeguarding, but alsomaking sure that you know the
(22:41):
systems are themselvesprotecting it, but that students
, you know we are also dealingwith AI, a completely new area
that you know.
A lot of schools are saying,well, we want to use it.
We don't really know how to useit.
And as government, we're saying, well, we want to, we want to
encourage it, we want ourchildren to be able to navigate
(23:02):
this, but there are also lots of, you know, of ethical questions
and whatever else around that.
So this digital policy wasreally necessary in order to at
least set those foundationalbases for how to engage with the
digital space, which has becomeubiquitous today.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
As you mentioned AI.
So in April of 2025, we'rehosting Teach Middle East.
We're hosting the first AI ineducation summit here in the UAE
, and a lot of schools.
Their questions are all aroundhow can we use it safely?
And so when we gather thethought leaders and the schools
(23:39):
in the space, that's probablygoing to be one of the very key
questions that we're going totry and answer at that summit
next year.
How can we use AI?
Because we can't run away fromit, because it's literally in
our phone.
Samsung has a phone called AI,samsung blah, blah, blah AI.
It's even in the name, so it'sgoing to be everywhere.
But you touched on somethingwhen we talked about making the
(24:03):
policies culturally relevant.
How do you balance thatcultural and local relevance
with global standards, becauseyou know this is a global
society that we live in?
How are those policies balancedbetween the local and the
global?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah, that's a good question and that touches back
on what you were saying about.
You know, preserving kind ofthe local culture.
You know the kind of, you knowstark, visible differences you
can see between Al Ain and AbuDhabi.
So part of that was making surethat, again, they were
culturally, locally relevant forthe cultural context and I
spoke more broadly about it.
But you know there are aspectswhere we are making sure that
(24:41):
there is a root in nationalidentity.
So, for example, for the earlyeducation institution policies
and their food and nutrition, oreven in their teaching and the
learning development policies,we really make sure that that is
addressed.
So now, for example, all youngchildren who are in nurseries
will have to be exposed to theArabic language on a daily basis
(25:04):
, and this does not just applyto UAE nationals.
If you are a young expat childwho is living in the UAE, what
better offering than to startyou off on learning a second
language as early as when you'rein nursery?
And of course, it should be thelocal language which is Arabic.
This will also give them afooting in terms of being able
(25:24):
to address Arabic and learnArabic more fluently when
they're in school, which is alsoa compulsory item.
So it's about not only aboutpreserving the local culture,
but about preparing children forschool readiness, at least from
this linguistic component.
There are other aspects, suchas, you know, making sure that
children in nurseries areexposed to Emirati dishes once a
(25:45):
week, for example, just so thatthey develop a taste, and again
you're, you know, as an expatchild you're also, you're a
guest and, as much as this canbe your home, you are a guest in
the country and it's importantfor you to you know, be able to
be familiar with.
You know different concepts,tastes, senses and the unwritten
word.
You know those types ofcultural aspects when it comes
(26:07):
to your development and growth,in terms as well of kind of.
You know to touch more uponwhat you talked about you know
the global standards, makingsure that they're meeting the
local context.
I think in a lot of situationswhen we do do the benchmarking,
we find things that works in onecontext but, for example, a lot
of the policies we found reallyreally dealt into curriculum In
(26:31):
the Abu Dhabi context.
This is not something that wecould do.
The Ministry of Education,perhaps, would be in a space
where they could develop a fullcurriculum for a certain topic,
let's say AI or whatever itmight be.
As regulators at ADEC, we had tobe mindful of the fact that we
have over 200 schoolsrepresenting, you know, over 15
(26:51):
or more curricula.
You have many differentlanguages of instructions and
not only that, where each ofthese curricula are also having
to address and meet their ownnational standards.
You know whether it's theBangladeshi curriculum or, you
know, Japanese curriculum, orFrench or whatever it might be.
And so we always took thosebest practices and said, ok, in
(27:13):
order for this to, we can't haveit as a one size fits all, so
how can we contextualize this sothat it's as broadly applicable
as possible?
And we did that, of course,through the collaboration with
school, saying OK, okay, how canwe?
We want this to be applied inyour school, but from your
perspective, how does it work inBangladesh?
How does it work in Japan?
You know how does it work inFrance and Germany or in, you
(27:34):
know, whatever it might be.
And what can we kind of agreeupon that's universal to all of
us, that it can be applied aspart of our policy.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, makes sense Because as a regulator, your job
is to ensure the system works,not to get into sort of like the
fine-tune.
So what impact do youanticipate, yeah, that these
policies will have on studentwell-being, their holistic
development, moving the schoolsof Abu Dhabi forward?
(28:03):
What's your anticipation?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Well, of course, our hope is that it will all be for
the better, it will all be forthe positive, and I think, just
in terms of I mean, the biggestshift I think we can say in a
nutshell, between the oldpolicies and the new, and the
new policies as well, is thefocus on well-being.
So in the 2014 policies, youmay have seen a policy or two
(28:29):
that touches upon the notion of,you know, student protection
here, you know, making sure thatstudents are well for
counseling.
This is how it was addressedand we found, when we did the
survey, the biggest area thatwas, you know, we had, relevance
coverage, some of the otherthings.
Coverage was the biggest areawhere people felt disagreed in
terms of, you know, do the oldpolicies cover the broad range
(28:51):
of things that should be coveredin a school?
And then when we dug a littlebit deeper into that question
and we said well, you know, ifyou said that it doesn't cover
or the coverage is notsufficient, then what areas do
need to be addressed?
And in 90% of those cases, itwas well-being how the policies
need to address this and in 90%of those cases, it was
well-being how policies need toaddress this.
So we have about 14 newwell-being specific policies,
(29:13):
although we can say all thepolicies somehow address
well-being.
But this is an area where, ofcourse, we expect there to be
the biggest impact, that it'snot just looking at schools as
places of academic learning, butwhere children do develop
socially, emotionally, as awhole person, in which academics
(29:37):
is only one part of that.
And so we have, for example, anew PE and sports policy to make
sure that children are engagedin physical activity on a daily
basis.
We have a new mental healthpolicy to make sure that
children or students arereceiving the type of support
they need if they feel that theyhave been bullied, if they're
just having anxiety issues intheir schools, whatever it might
be.
We also have a newextracurricular activities and
events policy, which makes surethat students are being given
(29:59):
opportunities to explore areasoutside of academics, whether
it's being able to partake inactivities that are more
athletic or artistic orphilanthropic, or whatever it
might be.
We have, you know, inclusion.
Oh my gosh.
That is one policy which isjust phenomenal in terms of
making sure that we'readdressing all students and all
(30:23):
of their needs, not juststudents who, you know, let's
say, have had a diagnosis, youknow, moving away kind of from a
medical perspective of whatinclusion means and addressing
any student that has any sort oflearning need, whether they're
diagnosed or not, in the mostcomprehensive way possible, not
allowing student schools even toturn them away.
(30:43):
They actually have to apply toADDIC and notify us, and there's
a process in which ADDIC willeither validate that or overturn
it and say actually the studentcan be supported in your school
and they will provide advice onhow you can do that and whatnot
.
So in terms of kind of theimpact that this will have on
student well-being and holisticdevelopment, I can't agree more
(31:05):
that this addresses exactly thatand hopefully we will see the
impact of that in a few years,once these policies have had the
chance to mature and beimplemented in schools.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And what hurdles do you anticipate schools will have
?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Oh lots, there will be any.
I think.
Just as human nature, we're notcomfortable with change, and so
you know it is going to take alot of work.
You know some people will saythis is an absolute burden on us
, but it will be ourresponsibility, along with the
school leadership, to work withteachers, different
practitioners in schools,parents as well as well as
(31:41):
students, to make sure that youknow what we are doing is for
the betterment of the studentexperience, for the betterment
of student learning outcomes,and that will take resources,
that will take time, that willtake, you know, additional
professional development,whatever it might be, and those
are all, let's say, positiveobstacles.
That's how I see it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Brilliant.
Is there anything I should haveasked you that I didn't ask you
that you would like to tell usabout?
Should have asked you that Ididn't ask you that you would
like to tell us about?
That's my last question.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Anyway, goodness had I I'm not sure, no, I think I've
covered everything.
I just I can't emphasize justhow proud we are of these
policies and just I'm just sograteful I think ADEC as a whole
, we're so grateful to have beenable to use this as a context
to really build our relationshipwith schools and to really hear
(32:33):
back from them.
These focus groups.
They're not just about hearingback from them about how we can
improve the policies, but I feelin many ways they've become
safe spaces for practitioners tobe able to just talk about some
of the concerns they have andhear back from us.
To be able to just talk aboutsome of the concerns they have
and hear back from us, getadvice on how they can work
around things in a morecompliant fashion, or whatever
(32:54):
it might be.
So I think that's somethingthat I really want to emphasize
on.
It's just, you know, thank youto all the schools, to all the
principals, to all thepractitioners, every stakeholder
we've ever worked with, to beable to have that opportunity to
really make sure that we'rehaving an impact on students in
Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Ah, thank you, Sylvie .
Thank you so much for being onthe podcast with me today.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Thank you, lisa, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
You are listening to the Teach Middle East podcast
connecting, developing andempowering educators.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Hey everyone, this is Lisa Grace, and welcome back to
the Teach Middle East podcast,or better yet, welcome If this
is your first time listening.
Today I have Sylvie Wald on thepodcast with me Now.
Sylvie is the Education PolicyOffice Director for ADEC.
I think I got all of that right, did I, sylvie?
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Absolutely.
It is a mouthful.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
It is a mouthful.
Now.
Adec is a familiar place to me.
As everyone knows, I worked forADEC for many years, and so to
be talking to someone from ADECobviously not from my time is
always good, because I'm alwayslike what's the office goss, who
left who's there?
But I won't be doing that today.
Today we're on serious business, because we want to talk about
(00:59):
the new policies that have beenupdated, and we're not talking
about one policy or two policies.
You know.
We're talking about 39 policiesand 27 new early education
policies, so it is a policyfiesta today.
Welcome to the podcast, sylvie.
Thank you for having me.
(01:19):
Okay, now here's the thing abouttalking on this podcast Our
guests love to know who we'retalking to.
So before we talk about policy,which guys?
You guys know it's a bit dry,isn't it?
But we have to learn because wehave to follow policy.
Sylvie, where did your careerbegin?
Where are you from?
Speaker 3 (01:39):
So I'm actually French.
I have a French father, aKorean mother.
I grew up as an expat child inHong Kong as well as in France,
so being in Abu Dhabi actuallyspeaks to me very much, because
a lot of the students for whomwe're creating these policies to
make sure that they've got kindof the best of the best that
(01:59):
education has to offer is, youknow, I see myself in these kids
.
So that's kind of where Istarted.
But in terms of my trajectory,of course I didn't study
education in the beginning.
I was actually looking tobecome a doctor and then, after
a couple of you knowprofessional pathway changes,
here and there, I found mycalling, which is education
(02:20):
policy.
It's an area of policy in thearea, like you said, it is dry,
oftentimes it's just.
You said it is dry, oftentimesit's just.
You know, it's like readingterms and conditions, but I am
extremely passionate about this.
It's something that alwaysbaffles my colleagues, but there
we go.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, it's interesting because we always do
it.
So I used to be a principalwith ADHC and we always used to
say, according to the policyguys, this is what we ought to
do.
And then we always used to getthese policies and we used to
read them through and thenformulate, obviously, the
policies for our schools basedon the ADDIC policies.
So when you're formulatingpolicies, what is the process
(02:59):
that you go through?
Give me the skinny version.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Sure.
So I'm really happy to do that,because I think now at Addict
we really have a robust and,more than anything, the keyword
is collaborative we have areally collaborative approach to
making sure that we'redeveloping policies.
I think a lot of you know mycolleagues, policymakers all
around the world, willabsolutely agree with me when I
(03:23):
say the worst kind of policiesare those that are just imposed
top down.
That you know.
Some people say this is what weneed to do, and then, you know,
a law or policy or some pieceof legislation is issued, and
then schools find themselves onthe other end being like wait,
but I can't do this in my school, it doesn't work in my context,
and so and the research showsas well anytime you see any sort
(03:45):
of you know policyrecommendation about you know
situations where a certainpolicy has been borrowed from
one area or benchmarked withanother region, one of the
biggest policy recommendationsis always make sure that it has
been contextualized locally, andso, from that standpoint, we
have put collaboration as thekeystone in our policy process.
(04:06):
So we made sure, I mean, had wejust gone ahead and thought,
okay, our policies from 2014,the old school policies, these
are, you know, we know they're alittle bit out of date, they're
using terminology we no longeruse, they're not covering
subject areas that we think arenow applicable.
And having just a small groupof people decide that we could
have finished this project insix months, that is not what we
(04:27):
wanted to do.
We wanted to make sure thatwhatever we were going to have
replaced those old policies wereco-owned with our schools.
So instead we embarked on athree-year journey where we
started this all off with a bigsurvey.
We reached out to schools.
We said hey guys, here are theold policies, what do you think
of them?
(04:48):
So you know, we got theirfeedback, okay, and we wanted to
ask them how relevant are they?
What do you think of thecoverage of the policies?
Do you find them clear?
Do you like the structure?
Are they feasible in terms ofimplementing them in your
schools?
These kinds of questions.
So we got phenomenal feedbackon that initial survey, which we
then said, okay, let's go intoit a little bit more deeply.
(05:08):
So we had a series of focusgroups as well, with as many
schools as wanted to come andspeak to us to learn a little
bit more about what they thoughtof the old policies, and that
kind of kicked off a longjourney where we then looked at
the old policies and at thattime we actually had 81.
It was one manual, but it had81 different policies, and so
(05:29):
what we did was we just, youknow, we've merged, here and
there We've added new policies,but sometimes we've also deleted
old policies, which is why wenow have 39.
It's a less daunting number,but nonetheless it does reflect
all of that work that wasoriginally present, so to speak.
So, in terms of again makingsure that they were
collaborative, we then engagedin a process where we grouped
(05:51):
those 81 policies into about 40different areas and then, for
each policy, we also had asurvey sent around to schools
every single school.
We also then did focus groups,and it was on a volunteering
basis.
We invited everyone to come andgive us feedback on that
specific policy, and in somecases we had all schools
attending.
In some cases, you know, someschools were not interested in
(06:13):
financial audit policy.
They were like we can skip thisone.
So it really was flexible inorder to make sure that schools
could voice their opinions wherethey feel that it was necessary
.
On top of that sorry, I knowyou're probably ready to move on
to the next- question.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
I'm not, I linger.
I linger for the actual valuein what you're saying.
So you carry on, becauseschools want to know how this
really takes place.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Well, this will be for the public, because schools
already know no no, no, remember, Adek is Abu Dhabi, but schools
.
Us all over yes.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So, yeah, so it wasn't.
We didn't just stop there.
We then made sure of course,all of these policies involved
other types of stakeholders.
If we had policies related tothe health sector, we made sure
we worked with the healthauthorities and reviewing them
as well.
If it was related totransportation, you know,
whatever it might be.
So we had about 15 differentregulators also work with us on
reviewing all the differentpolicies.
(07:10):
Not only that, we also had alarger kind of investor workshop
to understand, you know, fromtheir perspective, what are, and
of course we didn't do it sofrequently with them, but it was
a bigger session where we cameand talked more generally about
the policies.
We also did a few parentsessions as well.
And then for different policieswe had so for within those kind
(07:31):
of 40 or so groups, we hadsurveys.
But we also did additionalfollow-up focus groups.
So we invited schools and wetold them okay, not only you
know they, obviously ourcommunication is with the school
leadership but we said bringyour practitioners.
Today we're going to be talkingabout the career and university
guidance policy.
Well then, bring your careerand university guidance
counselor.
Today we're going to be talkingabout mental health Well then,
(07:53):
bring your counselor, whateverit might be.
You know, inclusion bring your.
You know, at that time we calledthem SENCOs, et cetera.
So it was a work where wereally dealt into each policy
from a technical perspective,practitioner's perspective as
well as leadership perspectiveand made sure that we captured
as much of the feedback aspossible, moving on.
(08:13):
Once we actually drafted thoseand had those reviewed as well
by our partner regulators.
We then went back to schoolsand we said, okay, guys, we now
actually have a draft.
So we want to know how many ofyou are actually interested in
doing some of the more hardcorework with us, which is reviewing
the text of the draft itself.
We were really lucky because ofthe when we started, we had
(08:35):
about 203 schools.
At that time, ninety nineschools volunteered to be part
of what we call the principalworking group, and obviously we
can have all 19 on at the sametime.
So each time we reviewed adraft of the policy, we selected
about 20 or so principals on afirst come, first serve basis,
but also we did a randomselection to make sure there was
(08:58):
representation in each of thoseprincipal working groups in
order to represent the diversityof curricula, fee ranges, the
size of school, et cetera.
So then we worked with those 20principals, we sent them a copy
of the draft.
They read them in advance, andthen we spent the sessions
(09:19):
getting their final feedback.
Does the text make sense to you?
Is it clear?
Is it worded in a way thatworks for you?
Will this be feasible in yourschool?
Can you implement it?
No, if not, how can we amend it?
So this is three years later.
This is where we are.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
How did you come down to 39?
Speaker 3 (09:37):
That's a very good question.
Again, we worked on making surethat it made sense from a user
perspective as well.
So you know there are differenttopics, of course.
We you know they're kind ofthree general buckets.
There's anything concerningkind of operations of the school
and governance as well.
There's teaching and learningrelated policies, and then
(09:57):
others that are more kind ofhealth, safety and well-being
related and learning relatedpolicies, and then others that
are more kind of health, safetyand well-being related.
And it's hard to kind of putthem in buckets because a lot of
them actually address all areas.
You know, for example,well-being.
That's an area where you knowit is let's we put it it's
primarily in the health andwell-being bucket, but there are
aspects of governance.
You need to have a well-beingcommittee.
You need to make sure that youyou know your school have a
(10:19):
well-being strategy in placethat's reviewed by the board, et
cetera.
And then it also affects, ofcourse, teaching and learning,
because we're talking aboutmaking sure that well-being you
know children's well-being andsocial, emotional learning.
These are all aspects that arealso embedded into the
curriculum.
So you know, it was really justabout looking at the different
categories and seeing, okay,well, how and again.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
This is always fluid too, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
So at this point, for example, we had at that time
with the old policy.
There was a separate one onattendance, another one on
admissions, another one ongraduation, on promotion,
whatever it might be.
So those, for example, we said,well, it's all kind of related
to student administrativeaffairs and things like that.
So we grouped them into astudent administrative affairs
policy.
Others, for example, aroundcounseling services.
(11:03):
That was an old policy.
That was very kind of generalin terms of you need to have
counseling services.
It'd be a good idea if you hadcareer counseling as well, but
it's not really required.
You know, have fun with that.
Again, you know those policieswere written at a different time
.
They were starter policies andthey really worked well for that
setting.
But we saw that and we said, ok, we need to separate out, for
(11:25):
example, social emotionalcounseling versus career and
university counseling, which isvery, very targeted.
So we split that policy up intotwo.
Career and university is nowits own, and anything related to
social emotional that we putinto both the student mental
health policy and there's also astaff wellbeing policy, so
integrated in different ways?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, and there are policies for early education 27
of them and did you follow thesame process in formulating and
ratifying those policies as well?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
So the early education policies came about a
year after we began with theschool policies.
The priority, of course, was torevise the existing policies.
But a year later, actually, oneof the things that we also
noticed well, not that wenoticed, but that has been that
we've been aware of for a whilethat we said we actually need to
(12:19):
make sure we do this, thatwe've been aware of for a while,
that we said we actually needto make sure we do this, is to
actually have policies for whatwe're now just calling nurseries
.
But we said, okay, well, thissector is an area that really,
you know, we're going to begrowing this in the next couple
of years and you've seen, in thepast year there's kind of been
an explosion of the earlyeducation scene.
So to really supplement that,there was a priority to okay,
(12:39):
let's not wait until we'refinished with the school
policies, let's kind of jumpstraight into the early
education institutions policiesas well.
So that we had a slightlytighter deadline as well.
So we weren't able to do it inexactly the same way, but
nonetheless we started bydrafting all of the policies.
We started with a smaller groupas a sample about 40 of the 200
(13:00):
plus nurseries and we reallykind of shaped them a little bit
more again, given the timeconstraints, but then really
made sure that by the time wehad the policies in place, we
organized a huge event inDecember 2023, where we invited
all the nurseries as well tocome inform them, share the
policies with them and informthem of what was to come, and
(13:21):
use that session really togather their feedback.
And once that was done as well,we spent the latter part of this
year.
We actually had soft launches,so we shared them internally
with schools and separately withnurseries earlier on in the
year.
What we did then was engage ina series of training sessions so
that they were kind of all upto date on that.
But one of the fantasticaspects that came out of those
(13:46):
training sessions was we hadabout 5,000 participants 4,000
from school and a little bitmore about 1,000 or so from the
nurseries and they asked us suchwonderful questions and we had
a live Q&A.
We had a team on hand answeringtheir questions.
But we said, ok, we don't justwant to leave these questions as
is.
There's some really pertinentthings and really pertinent
feedback that we really believeshould be integrated into the
(14:08):
policy, and so we also use thatas an opportunity to update the
policies before they went public.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
OK, and so when you talk about ADDIC's support of
schools and EEIs in achievingthese policies, you did touch on
that a little, but how farreaching is that support?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
So, first of all, we startedoff with these training sessions
and we'll continue doing thesebecause these are extremely
important, of course, forleadership as well as for
practitioners.
So, again, it was kind of morelimited, but we absolutely plan
moving forward in 2025 to haveother opportunities whether it's
these live events or otherresources for these kinds of
(14:49):
trainings for each policy tocontinue.
Not only that, but we are alsodeveloping other resources to
help support them.
So each policy will also have apolicy guide attached to it.
So if you want to compare, let'ssay, the old 2014 policies with
the new ones, those werewritten in a way where it told
(15:10):
you what you needed to do, sowhat's actual policy?
But there's also guidance there.
So it was like you need to makesure to have, as I mentioned
earlier, have counselingservices for your students.
So that's technically arequirement.
So that's technically arequirement.
So that's a policy.
And then there were some goodrecommendations on best practice
.
You know it would be good ideato have a counselor in your
school.
It'd be a good idea to alsoprovide career guidance services
(15:33):
, but those were notrequirements.
Those are kind of best practiceand recommendations, and so what
we did with this new policysince what we're kind of aiming
for was clarity, was strip awayeverything so that the policies
only focus on requirements forschools and everything else,
which is more around guidance,giving them best practice,
recommendations, advice andwhatnot we're now externalizing
(15:55):
that into a policy guide so thatthey're not having to filter
okay, what do I need to do,versus oh God, this is just
extra text in here, and whatnot.
So yeah, the next year, all thepolicies will also have policy
guides, and this is for the 27EEI policies and for the school
policies.
The majority of them will haveguides.
Some of them will also comeexternally.
We've got documents coming fromour regulatory partners that
(16:19):
will serve as guides insteaddocuments coming from our
regulatory partners that willserve as guides instead.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Yeah, that's very, very key, because I remember the
old policies and there were alot in there and we weren't sure
what's the requirement and whatis an actual advice or
suggestion.
So this new policy, these 39,when you look at them, you know
that your school is required tostick to this policy, as it is
mandated.
Talk to me about theconsideration, then, that you
(16:48):
have made when it comes on toformulating the policies against
you know the cultural norms ofAbu Dhabi, because Abu Dhabi is
a peculiar beast.
Like.
I lived in Al Ain for manyyears.
Shout out to Al Ain, myfavorite city, and then I
obviously moved to.
Abu Dhabi is a peculiar beast.
Like.
I lived in Al Ain for manyyears.
Shout out to Al Ain, myfavorite city, and then I
obviously moved to Abu Dhabicity, and it is not the same
(17:08):
place.
I know that sounds weird, butAl Ain is a whole different
place compared to Abu Dhabi.
How did you like look at thepolicies in terms of their
cultural nuances?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, that's a very good question.
I just realized also, before Ido answer, that I forgot to
mention one very important thingwhich supports your latter
question is that also, not onlywill there be kind of resources
this is a little bit morepassive, if you will but we also
actively have teams going intoschools to support them with
their readiness.
So one way we're alsosupporting them is we know this
(17:43):
is going to be superoverwhelming for them 39 new
policies that they have toimplement so we worked with them
and said, guys, what would helpyou?
So already we got theirfeedback in terms of how we can
actively help, but the mostimportant thing is actually
we're releasing them now.
They've had them since January,but the compliance states don't
kick in until next year formost of them.
So this is a new concept thatdidn't exist in the previous
(18:06):
policies, but the idea was togive them essentially a grace
period to implement thosepolicies, because we know it
takes time, it takes resources,they're not going to be able to
do it overnight.
So that was our first way ofreally providing support, saying
, guys, you do have the time tobe able to transition into it.
Not only that, though we'reproviding them with other than
the resources that I mentionedsupport visits.
So we have different teams.
(18:27):
For example, our inclusion teamis they're visiting schools
individually and looking at eachschool in their own context to
not only say, ok, well, how areyou meeting the policy, how are
you just preparing them so thatthey are ready to be compliant
by the next academic year, bywhich you know that it will be a
little bit more high stakes.
So there's a lot of supportvisits happening that are being
(18:50):
handled by the differenttechnical teams within ADEC as
well.
So I did just want to mentionthat.
On your point about the culturalkind of considerations for Abu
Dhabi, this was so important tous because we do live in a
context where, you know, I mean,let's think about it this
country is only, you know, 53years old.
It's, in the larger scheme ofthings, it's very new.
(19:13):
It's a very new country and weknow, having been here you have
been here as well as long as youhave that there has been so
much change that has happened inthe last 10, 15, 20 years.
You know, even for people whohave been here for five years,
they've noticed a significantshift in what's going on, and so
(19:40):
I think it's fair to say thatUAE nationals, they're
experiencing cultural changesthat are happening at the speed
of light.
You know, between theirgrandparents' generations to
their parents, to, you know, thestudents of today, there are
major, major generational shiftsthat have happened, and so one
of the things that, as well, ourpolicy is so mindful of is to
make sure that, in the midst ofall this, there is always a root
in the local culture and theUAE's cultural norms and values,
(20:01):
and making sure that thepolicies do respect UAE cultural
norms and values and traditions, because these are something
that really makes the UAEeducational system what it is
being rooted in.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
That, yeah, I love the fact that you considered the
schools and gave that graceperiod, because there is nothing
worse than getting a policywith an overnight enactment
clause and you're like, oh myGod, how do I you know?
But let's unpack a little bitsome of the policies.
So I've heard a lot about thenew ICT in technology policy and
(20:36):
I don't want to put you like onthe spot to explain the policy.
But there's been a lot of talkabout that policy and I don't
know why I haven't fully read it.
I read parts of it.
Why do you think there's such abuzz around that particular
policy item?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
That's a very good question.
Well, I think again, this is apolicy that is so relevant to
our day and age and,interestingly enough, in 2014,
we did have a policy that thedigital policy was built on.
It had a fantastic name and Imentioned this all the time.
You know, if schools arelistening to this, they'll say
(21:15):
oh God, here she goes again withthis story.
I can't remember the actualname of the policy, but it was
something like you know policy Idon't know, 42, protecting
students against the dangers ofthe global information network,
and then, in parentheses, theInternet.
So this was kind of how weapproached things back in 2014,
which was okay.
(21:35):
There's a thing called theInternet.
We know schools have to engagewith it and we're kind of
fearful of it, which is whywe're like we have to protect
students against this.
You know, and it was there wasmaybe two paragraphs in that old
policy.
Today, I think, we are aware ofthe fact that we have to be even
more wary of the digital space.
(21:56):
However, that's only from asafeguarding perspective.
There's so many benefits and wecannot have our students lag
behind in the area of digitalcompetencies.
So that policy has really beenrewritten with keeping that in
mind, making sure that it'sreally about making sure that
students are building theirdigital competencies and that
(22:17):
schools also have in place youknow, that they're working on a
digital strategy for themselvesthat works for themselves, that
addresses all those differentareas while, of course,
simultaneously and let's youknow, more than anything else
making sure that they areprotected in the digital space.
So, yes, it's not just about youknow, digital competencies and
digital safeguarding, but alsomaking sure that you know the
(22:41):
systems are themselvesprotecting it, but that students
, you know we are also dealingwith AI, a completely new area
that you know.
A lot of schools are saying,well, we want to use it.
We don't really know how to useit.
And as government, we're saying, well, we want to, we want to
encourage it, we want ourchildren to be able to navigate
(23:02):
this, but there are also lots of, you know, of ethical questions
and whatever else around that.
So this digital policy wasreally necessary in order to at
least set those foundationalbases for how to engage with the
digital space, which has becomeubiquitous today.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
Yeah, yeah, I get it.
As you mentioned AI.
So in April of 2025, we'rehosting Teach Middle East.
We're hosting the first AI ineducation summit here in the UAE
, and a lot of schools.
Their questions are all aroundhow can we use it safely?
And so when we gather thethought leaders and the schools
(23:39):
in the space, that's probablygoing to be one of the very key
questions that we're going totry and answer at that summit
next year.
How can we use AI?
Because we can't run away fromit, because it's literally in
our phone.
Samsung has a phone called AI,samsung blah, blah, blah AI.
It's even in the name, so it'sgoing to be everywhere.
But you touched on somethingwhen we talked about making the
(24:03):
policies culturally relevant.
How do you balance thatcultural and local relevance
with global standards, becauseyou know this is a global
society that we live in?
How are those policies balancedbetween the local and the
global?
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Yeah, that's a good question and that touches back
on what you were saying about.
You know, preserving kind ofthe local culture.
You know the kind of, you knowstark, visible differences you
can see between Al Ain and AbuDhabi.
So part of that was making surethat, again, they were
culturally, locally relevant forthe cultural context and I
spoke more broadly about it.
But you know there are aspectswhere we are making sure that
(24:41):
there is a root in nationalidentity.
So, for example, for the earlyeducation institution policies
and their food and nutrition, oreven in their teaching and the
learning development policies,we really make sure that that is
addressed.
So now, for example, all youngchildren who are in nurseries
will have to be exposed to theArabic language on a daily basis
(25:04):
, and this does not just applyto UAE nationals.
If you are a young expat childwho is living in the UAE, what
better offering than to startyou off on learning a second
language as early as when you'rein nursery?
And of course, it should be thelocal language which is Arabic.
This will also give them afooting in terms of being able
(25:24):
to address Arabic and learnArabic more fluently when
they're in school, which is alsoa compulsory item.
So it's about not only aboutpreserving the local culture,
but about preparing children forschool readiness, at least from
this linguistic component.
There are other aspects, suchas, you know, making sure that
children in nurseries areexposed to Emirati dishes once a
(25:45):
week, for example, just so thatthey develop a taste, and again
you're, you know, as an expatchild you're also, you're a
guest and, as much as this canbe your home, you are a guest in
the country and it's importantfor you to you know, be able to
be familiar with.
You know different concepts,tastes, senses and the unwritten
word.
You know those types ofcultural aspects when it comes
(26:07):
to your development and growth,in terms as well of kind of.
You know to touch more uponwhat you talked about you know
the global standards, makingsure that they're meeting the
local context.
I think in a lot of situationswhen we do do the benchmarking,
we find things that works in onecontext but, for example, a lot
of the policies we found reallyreally dealt into curriculum In
(26:31):
the Abu Dhabi context.
This is not something that wecould do.
The Ministry of Education,perhaps, would be in a space
where they could develop a fullcurriculum for a certain topic,
let's say AI or whatever itmight be.
As regulators at ADEC, we had tobe mindful of the fact that we
have over 200 schoolsrepresenting, you know, over 15
(26:51):
or more curricula.
You have many differentlanguages of instructions and
not only that, where each ofthese curricula are also having
to address and meet their ownnational standards.
You know whether it's theBangladeshi curriculum or, you
know, Japanese curriculum, orFrench or whatever it might be.
And so we always took thosebest practices and said, ok, in
(27:13):
order for this to, we can't haveit as a one size fits all, so
how can we contextualize this sothat it's as broadly applicable
as possible?
And we did that, of course,through the collaboration with
school, saying OK, okay, how canwe?
We want this to be applied inyour school, but from your
perspective, how does it work inBangladesh?
How does it work in Japan?
You know how does it work inFrance and Germany or in, you
(27:34):
know, whatever it might be.
And what can we kind of agreeupon that's universal to all of
us, that it can be applied aspart of our policy.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yeah, makes sense Because as a regulator, your job
is to ensure the system works,not to get into sort of like the
fine-tune.
So what impact do youanticipate, yeah, that these
policies will have on studentwell-being, their holistic
development, moving the schoolsof Abu Dhabi forward?
(28:03):
What's your anticipation?
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Well, of course, our hope is that it will all be for
the better, it will all be forthe positive, and I think, just
in terms of I mean, the biggestshift I think we can say in a
nutshell, between the oldpolicies and the new, and the
new policies as well, is thefocus on well-being.
So in the 2014 policies, youmay have seen a policy or two
(28:29):
that touches upon the notion of,you know, student protection
here, you know, making sure thatstudents are well for
counseling.
This is how it was addressedand we found, when we did the
survey, the biggest area thatwas, you know, we had, relevance
coverage, some of the otherthings.
Coverage was the biggest areawhere people felt disagreed in
terms of, you know, do the oldpolicies cover the broad range
(28:51):
of things that should be coveredin a school?
And then when we dug a littlebit deeper into that question
and we said well, you know, ifyou said that it doesn't cover
or the coverage is notsufficient, then what areas do
need to be addressed?
And in 90% of those cases, itwas well-being how the policies
need to address this and in 90%of those cases, it was
well-being how policies need toaddress this.
So we have about 14 newwell-being specific policies,
(29:13):
although we can say all thepolicies somehow address
well-being.
But this is an area where, ofcourse, we expect there to be
the biggest impact, that it'snot just looking at schools as
places of academic learning, butwhere children do develop
socially, emotionally, as awhole person, in which academics
(29:37):
is only one part of that.
And so we have, for example, anew PE and sports policy to make
sure that children are engagedin physical activity on a daily
basis.
We have a new mental healthpolicy to make sure that
children or students arereceiving the type of support
they need if they feel that theyhave been bullied, if they're
just having anxiety issues intheir schools, whatever it might
be.
We also have a newextracurricular activities and
events policy, which makes surethat students are being given
(29:59):
opportunities to explore areasoutside of academics, whether
it's being able to partake inactivities that are more
athletic or artistic orphilanthropic, or whatever it
might be.
We have, you know, inclusion.
Oh my gosh.
That is one policy which isjust phenomenal in terms of
making sure that we'readdressing all students and all
(30:23):
of their needs, not juststudents who, you know, let's
say, have had a diagnosis, youknow, moving away kind of from a
medical perspective of whatinclusion means and addressing
any student that has any sort oflearning need, whether they're
diagnosed or not, in the mostcomprehensive way possible, not
allowing student schools even toturn them away.
(30:43):
They actually have to apply toADDIC and notify us, and there's
a process in which ADDIC willeither validate that or overturn
it and say actually the studentcan be supported in your school
and they will provide advice onhow you can do that and whatnot
.
So in terms of kind of theimpact that this will have on
student well-being and holisticdevelopment, I can't agree more
(31:05):
that this addresses exactly thatand hopefully we will see the
impact of that in a few years,once these policies have had the
chance to mature and beimplemented in schools.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
And what hurdles do you anticipate schools will have
?
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Oh lots, there will be any.
I think.
Just as human nature, we're notcomfortable with change, and so
you know it is going to take alot of work.
You know some people will saythis is an absolute burden on us
, but it will be ourresponsibility, along with the
school leadership, to work withteachers, different
practitioners in schools,parents as well as well as
(31:41):
students, to make sure that youknow what we are doing is for
the betterment of the studentexperience, for the betterment
of student learning outcomes,and that will take resources,
that will take time, that willtake, you know, additional
professional development,whatever it might be, and those
are all, let's say, positiveobstacles.
That's how I see it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Brilliant.
Is there anything I should haveasked you that I didn't ask you
that you would like to tell usabout?
Should have asked you that Ididn't ask you that you would
like to tell us about?
That's my last question.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Anyway, goodness had I I'm not sure, no, I think I've
covered everything.
I just I can't emphasize justhow proud we are of these
policies and just I'm just sograteful I think ADEC as a whole
, we're so grateful to have beenable to use this as a context
to really build our relationshipwith schools and to really hear
(32:33):
back from them.
These focus groups.
They're not just about hearingback from them about how we can
improve the policies, but I feelin many ways they've become
safe spaces for practitioners tobe able to just talk about some
of the concerns they have andhear back from us.
To be able to just talk aboutsome of the concerns they have
and hear back from us, getadvice on how they can work
around things in a morecompliant fashion, or whatever
(32:54):
it might be.
So I think that's somethingthat I really want to emphasize
on.
It's just, you know, thank youto all the schools, to all the
principals, to all thepractitioners, every stakeholder
we've ever worked with, to beable to have that opportunity to
really make sure that we'rehaving an impact on students in
Abu Dhabi.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Ah, thank you, Sylvie .
Thank you so much for being onthe podcast with me today.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Thank you, lisa, it was a pleasure.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Thank you for listening to the Teach Middle
East podcast.
Visit our websiteteachmiddleeastcom and follow us
on social media.
The links are in the show notes.
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