UAE schools roll out new assessments for Arabic, English and Mathematics

UAE schools have stepped into the new academic year with a sharper focus on personalised learning — aiming to understand every student’s strengths and challenges right from the start.

- Nandini Sircar

The new initiative is designed to identify learning gaps early and help teachers tailor lessons to individual needs.

Public and private schools following the Ministry of Education (MoE) curriculum have begun implementing a new diagnostic assessment system designed to identify learning gaps early and help teachers tailor lessons to individual needs.

The new system, now being introduced, combines classroom-based assessments in all subjects with centralised diagnostic exams in Arabic, English, and Mathematics. The first phase will include around 26,000 students in Grades 4 to 11.

Under the new framework, the assessment distribution and weighting will vary across grade levels:

» Grades 1-2: 100 per cent school-based evaluation, reflecting the developmental needs of early learners.

» Grade 3: 50 per cent school-based evaluation and 50 per cent centralised assessments. Term weightings: 35 per cent for the first and third terms; lower for the shorter second term.