Middle East & North Africa Student performance in the UAE has slightly declined in all three subjects • Student performance in the UAE is above the MATHE- READING SCIENCE MENA average, but roughly 2 years of MATICS schooling1 below the OECD average. • For all three subjects, more than 40 percent of the student population does not meet the basic proficiency level, which places them at risk of exclusion. What may be driving student performance? • Socioeconomic background: There are differences equivalent to 2 years of schooling between the performance of students at the top and low income quintiles. • School type and location: The performance of students in private schools is 2.5 years of schooling ahead of their public school counterparts’, while differences equivalent to 2 years of schooling exist between students in urban and rural schools. • Gender Gap: Girls outperform boys in Science and Reading, with a gap equivalent to roughly 1.5 years of schooling in the latter subject. • School & Classroom: Students in the top quintile of the Sense of Belonging Index2 are around 1.5 years of schooling ahead of those in Science PISA Score the bottom quintile. Closely related is the Disciplinary Climate Index2, for which the difference in performance between the top and bottom quintiles is one year of schooling. • Teachers: Teacher-Directed Instruction2 is associated with better student performance (46 points difference in Science scores between the top and bottom quintiles in this Index). 1 ≈ Middle East & North Africa ≈ ≈ ≈ 2 Key to Indices: Middle East & North Africa PISA is the OECD’s benchmarking tool to assess • K-12 Education Expenditure TA: The achievement and application of key knowledge and Report was delivered to the government skills of 15 year-olds. PISA tests proficiency in in December 2015. mathematics, reading, science, and problem-solving. • MFM: Education sector selected as pilot It was launched in 2000 and is conducted every for the application of performance-based three years, with a focus on one of the subjects in financing. each round. In 2015, the focus is on Science. The 3 test was taken by representative samples from 72 countries, including nearly 540,000 students. Six • SABER-Student Assessment (2013) MENA countries participated in this PISA round: Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia and the 3 Systems Approach for Better Education Results United Arab Emirates. Note: In 2015, the OECD introduced several improvements to the design, administration, and scaling of PISA. For the most part, these changes did not affect the comparability of the 2015 results with those for previous assessments. For further information and implications for analyses of PISA data, please consult the PISA 2015 international report. Source: OECD, 2016. PISA 2015 Results (Volume 1): Excellence and Equity in Education. Paris: OECD.