Abu Dhabi: In addition to strengthening their skills in English and Arabic, public school students across the emirate of Abu Dhabi may soon be expected to master a third language, senior education officials said in the capital today (October 19).

The introduction of a third language is currently being studied as part of a curriculum reform plan for Grades 10, 11 and 12 (Cycle 3), said Sara Al Suwaidi, curriculum division manager at the emirate’s education sector regulator, Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec).

In addition, experts are looking at introducing subspecialties within aths, a mandatory high school subject, as well as a raft of humanities and arts subjects in high school, including geography, political science, economics, photography and design.

The curriculum changes are being discussed as part of a concerted drive by Adec to better prepare public school students for higher education.

“At present, our students require a lot of help with maths when they get to university. In addition, although many are bilingual, they do not have the skills required to read and write even Arabic and English at an academic level. These are some of the challenges we are facing and which we hope to resolve when the curriculum is further updated,” Al Suwaidi told Gulf News.

She was speaking on the sidelines of a workshop that saw education experts discuss the current public school curriculum for Grades 10 to 12, compare it to practices in other countries and set benchmarks for its improvement. Adec officials said the sessions would yield recommendations on how to improve the system further, and that these would then be reviewed with universities before being submitted for approval to the Abu Dhabi Government.

Adec has been working to develop the public school curriculum over the last six years, and has rolled out the Abu Dhabi School Model, which prioritises creativity over rote learning, and teaching sciences and maths in Arabic. The model is currently followed up to Grade 9.

Last year, sweeping changes were also introduced for Cycle 3, which has 31,000 enrolled students for the 2016-2017 academic year. These changes meant the introduction of mandatory science subjects and maths, but these are still taught to the students in Arabic.

“One of the main goals of further reforming the Cycle 3 curriculum is to ensure that public school students do not need to attend the foundation year at university. While the foundation year itself will be scrapped, its elimination may be delayed beyond 2018 in order to give students a chance to be prepared for university education,” Al Suwaidi said.

More changes are expected to be implemented in the 2017-2018 academic year, and Adec has a dedicated team that will develop resources for any new subjects as soon as the changes are approved. In addition, additional afternoon classes are already being offered to public school students who wish to develop their academic skills.

In future, if learning a third language is mandated for public schools, children may have to start learning the language as early as Grade 5 onwards, Al Suwaidi said.

“There are also plans to introduce arts like textile design for students, but we have to develop laboratories and other resources for these first,” she added.