A stern move to align students learning with their grades.
This initiative comes as part of ADEK’s mandate as an education regulator to guarantee students are assessed fairly and consistently. It aims to ensure that each graduate earns their credential through genuine academic achievement, prevent unfair practices that result in unreliable outcomes or inflated school rankings, and help create equitable opportunities for all students across the emirate.
Under Phase One, schools are required to submit Grade 12 academic records for immediate review. These include high school transcripts for all graduates, assessment policies and grading frameworks, graduation requirement documentation, samples of marked assessments, and a full record of all types of student assessments (diagnostic, formative, summative). So far, 12 schools have been temporarily barred from enrolling students in Grades 11 and 12 until compliance issues are resolved and corrective actions are in place.
Grade inflation not only misrepresents student learning, undermines trust in the education system and limits fair academic competition. That’s why this review aims to identify patterns of grade inflation, inconsistencies in awarding credits, and gaps between reported grades and actual performance and learning quality.
Future phases will extend to include Grades 9 through 11 and involve a comprehensive analysis of internal grades versus external benchmark exams. ADEK will also conduct trend analyses to detect systemic issues at the school level.
These efforts are part of a broader regulatory reform to ensure that academic achievements are credible, earned, and based on consistent and rigorous evaluation. This is essential to protect the integrity of student qualifications, which play a vital role in university admissions and future career readiness.
This review was initiated after ADEK’s quality assurance systems flagged discrepancies between internal grades and external benchmark exams. It ensures that awarded credits align with approved graduation pathways. Schools that do not meet the required standards may face administrative escalation or be subject to mandatory corrective measures under ADEK policy.
At its core, this process is about reinforcing parents’ confidence in the quality of education their children receive. ADEK remains committed to transparent, robust regulatory practices that uphold and protect that trust.