Opinion: Four Female Students at Bahrain Universities Share Their View on Education

Opinion: Four Female Students at Bahrain Universities Share Their View on Education

By Houda Al-Cheikh

MANAMA- Khadija Jaffar, Layla Ali and Mariam Al Shaikh are students at the Bahrain Teachers College, attached to the University of Bahrain, a public university. Samira El Ouali is an MBA student at the University of Bahrain.

The Bahrain Teachers College is a cornerstone of the current educational reforms, of which raising teacher quality is a priority. It opened its doors four years ago and has delivered over 350,000 hours of professional development, graduated over 250 new school leaders at the postgraduate level, and last year graduated its first batch of 69 primary school teachers.

Tell us a bit about yourself. What is your personal background, what does your education mean to you? What are your ambitions, and how do you see yourself fit into Bahrain’s future?

“I am a graduate of Al-Iman Private School and an English-major student in Bahrain Teachers’ College.

I have always been interested in education. In school, I always complained about having to study subjects that are irrelevant to my life. I unintentionally questioned my teachers’ teaching methods and critiqued the textbooks. I have always believed that textbooks should offer more than plain information. I wished each lesson would start with a short paragraph explaining how this lesson can relate to my life and how I can make use of it. These were all things I used to feel before deciding to become a teacher. I thought that those critical views I have are indicators that I do not fit into the discipline of education.

Later, I discovered that these views are exactly what make me a perfect teacher candidate because I genuinely care about education. I believe very strongly that education can change the entire society and nation. Only education can solve our social, political, economical, and moral problems.
As a future teacher, my aim is to help each student reach his/her highest learning potential. I aim to prepare my students to become lifelong learners and independent readers. An ideal classroom to me is a classroom that embraces diversity and nurtures and appreciates all different kinds of intelligences. Such aims are not very easy to accomplish, but with faith, patience, optimism and persistence, everything is possible.

I hope to study further and get higher degrees. It would be really helpful for Bahraini teachers to have masters programs in Bahrain Teachers’ College. It would make it more convenient for ambitious teachers to develop themselves and thus improve education in Bahrain. Finally, the educational reform in Bahrain needs devoted teachers who genuinely care about their students and their country; teachers who are optimistic, ambitious, and persistent.” (Mariam AlShaikh)

 Could you describe your experience of being a student in tertiary education in Bahrain? What is going well in this sector? What challenges need to be addressed?

“Tertiary education encourages students to enhance their intrinsic motivation. Each one is responsible for his/her own learning. Learning is serious at this stage; it ensures one’s economical future. It might be the last station before being employed. The stronger one builds his/her knowledge, skills, and values, the more chances are there for him/her to become a successful, recommended employee in the future. The main challenges now might be time management and quality of products. During our studies, there are times where we feel pressured, but we must manage our time and sometimes even sacrifice some of our quality time to our studies if we are serious about our future. In addition, at this stage we must be concerned by presenting qualified products at the end of our courses. If your work is of excellent quality, others will understand your value as an employee.” (Khadija Jaffar)

“Being a student at a quality university in Bahrain is a privilege for many students including me. We are being prepared to become qualified employees who can serve this country to the fullest potential. As students in Bahrain Teachers’ College, we are getting special care since we are anticipated to change the future to the better. As in any institute around the world, there are some challenges that we have to deal with. For instance, every semester we meet some new instructors who may or may not be as qualified as they should be. This is not necessarily about their degree, but about how competent they are to empower us with knowledge and skills necessary for our future careers. If we look at this challenge and all other challenges from a wider angle, we realize that they are valuable learning opportunities that allow us to use different strategies to cope with them, and eventually, become more willing to deal with challenges later.” (Layla Ali)

“My experience is quite positive. In Bahrain Teachers College, unlike many colleges I hear about in Bahrain, they encourage the instructors to be innovative and involve the students in group projects and discussions. They are also encouraged to address the diverse needs of students while teaching and assessing. I cannot say that all our instructors are applying these things, but I can confidently say that I have met quite a number of instructors who try their best to do these things. I expect these positive things to be there in our college since it is a teachers’ college, so our instructors are supposed to be flexible and updated with the latest teaching techniques. The challenge is for the other colleges to create learning environments that support lifelong learning.” (Mariam Al Shaikh)

Are you aware of any initiatives at the school level to foster community cohesion and social cohesion via the school system?

“Many teachers and principals are qualified enough to be good models for their students and to prepare for events within the school that engage students socially. I myself had a teacher who runs a committee with student volunteers to help people with special needs, sick children, and many others.” (Layla Ali)

“Community cohesion is seen at all school levels. For example, when we were sent to a primary school – for teaching practice – a police officer who came to the school to talk to the students about ethics and community service. Each class meets the officer once or twice a week. The schools also had a student’s council where the representatives were elected by the students themselves. They had elections during recess then counted the results to name the representatives, just like the elections we have for choosing government representatives. Each representative is in charge of his/her class and presents the achievements or problems his/her class are having.

The school system also celebrates national events such as the National Day and the memory of setting the National Charter. The schools also encourages cohesion and unity between students. No one is different regardless of his/her cultural or socioeconomic background. This is reflected through the administration and teachers’ relationships with students.” (Khadija Jaffar)

“Schools in Bahrain incorporate social and community cohesion as an important objective in the school system through:

-The development of student values which is seen to be part of the responsibility of all teachers, not just those teaching religion and citizenship, but all teachers are expected to model high standards of values and good manners. In addition, the morning school assembly each day discusses values such as caring for others, showing responsibility and so on.

– The organization of social activities and competitions between schools, the interschool activities.

– A sense of community belonging is fostered through parent-teacher interaction in order to enhance student performance.” (Samira El Ouali)

For those of you who are studying to become teachers: Do you feel that education studies are taking a new direction than it did in the past, in terms of pedagogical innovation? Do you feel that there is a new emphasis on ’21st century skills’ (innovation, solving problems, creativity, technology, interpersonal skills)?

“Yes, a new direction is taken to improve education. The emphasis is on changing the idea of “teacher as a knowledge provider”. I think the best way to describe it is through the Chinese proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and he’ll eat forever.” Teacher candidates are getting prepared to help the new generation children become life-long learners who are empowered with the skills to engage in our highly diverse community.” (Layla Ali)

“As I mentioned before, our instructors’ teaching style is very much different from the teaching style of most of the instructors of the other colleges – as we hear from our colleagues in other colleges. Our instructors encourage critical thinking by teaching us various teaching methods and giving us the freedom to apply whatever method we prefer in our classroom later. Moreover, classroom participation is highly encouraged and fostered. Group work is also promoted. Many instructors assess us using authentic and creative ways. Also, reflecting on our work is highly promoted. In every course we have to choose one assignment and reflect on it deeply and attach the assignments it with the reflection in our e-portfolio. In short, I can see many of our instructors doing their best to teach us the skills we need in the 21st century.” (Mariam Al Shaikh)

“Education in BTC focuses on the vision 2030 and how teaching and learning will be by then. There is a gap between the traditional ways of teaching, which are used nowadays at schools, and the 21st century teaching and learning skills. For that, BTC focuses on decreasing this gap by training us future teachers to acquire 21st century skills.

The courses we study focus on content knowledge, which is for us to learn, and teaching skills, which is mainly pedagogies of effective teaching. One of the courses is “Managing Primary School Project Work”; this course trains us to create effective projects for children based on problem-based learning and situational learning. Another course, which is “Developing Thinking in Children” trains us on teaching and questioning techniques that enhance students’ critical and creative thinking within a specific subject. We are also required to use interactive methods in teaching, and technology in particular.” (Khadija Jaffar)

“Yes of course, education studies are taking a new direction. Nowadays the learning process focuses on quality over quantity. The objective of teaching  in the 21st century is to develop the following skills: communication skills, body language skills, interpersonal skills, technological skills, problem-solving skills, team work, leadership skills. Working on personal projects with a view to develop creativity and innovation skills is also a priority. Language studies are also encouraged as a means to develop strong cultural and diplomatic ties with other countries.” (Samira El Ouali)

Comparing the private and public sectors in education, what differences do you notice? Is the quality different?

“As far as I know, most private schools teach almost all subjects in English, whereas in public schools students take only one English subject. This is not necessarily advantageous for students in the private school. I think it depends on the policy of each school and on English teachers’ pedagogy. A public school graduate might be more competent in English than a private school graduate.” (Layla Ali)

“This is a very difficult question. Each private school is completely different to the next. Some are much better than public schools in terms of the care the students get, the quality of education, and teacher quality. On the other hand, some private schools and universities are a plain waste of money. It depends on the school and the faculty members. Most but not all private schools offer better bilingual environments than public schools, but quite a number of them focus on English and neglect Arabic (the mother tongue).” (Mariam Al Shaikh)

“The quality of education differs based on many circumstances. First, the number of students in public schools is higher than private schools. The average number of students in each class in a public school is around 30 students, whereas private schools contain an average of about 20 students per class. This affects the teacher’s time and effort spent in teaching. Another difference is in learning English, especially now that English is important for world wide communication. Private school students are more exposed to the English language than public school students. The private schools study maths, science, history, and geography in English. On the other hand, public school students are only exposed to English as a second language, for a few hours a week. The quality of their English becomes noticeable, and sometimes problematic, after students graduate from school, when they enter universities or get a job.” (Khadija Jaffar)

“I believe that public schools have a high standard level, and the teachers are qualified, and the programs and education system are accredited, but do they meet the need of all parents and students from different nationalities? This is the big question.

Curriculum system differs from school to school in the private sector, which has a positive and negative impact on the continuity of  teaching and learning.

Some private schools have a very high quality of teaching, but also are very expensive and many parents cannot afford to send their children there. Some schools  seek to achieve the highest profit instead of high performance in quality of teaching.

The language of education is another challenge in Bahrain, because the labor market demands English language proficiency, and public schools concentrate more on Arabic because Bahrain is an Arab country. On the other hand, most of private schools focus more on English language, and this can be considered as negative and related to cultural loss.

Currently, quality assurance imposes the number of hours of Arabic language, Islamic studies, and citizenship to be implemented in both public and private school curricula.” (Samira El Ouali)

Do you feel that further education in Bahrain prepares students adequately to become qualified employees?

“Yes, I do. Especially at the University of Bahrain, students get a lot of experience, knowledge, and skills to fit in market requirements. Hopefully, Bahrain Teachers College graduates will highly contribute to produce ambitious, lifelong learners starting from the primary school level.” (Layla Ali)

“I believe that Bahrain is stepping towards this vision. They are investing more on Education, which is a good sign that the educational reform is going to succeed, and thus the future generations are going to be better employees and citizens.” (Mariam Al Shaikh)

“The vision of educational reform is to have lifelong learning students. This is why the Bahrain Teachers College was created; to create a change in Bahrain’s education. Not only school graduates enter BTC to be a part of the educational reform; current school principals, vice principals, and teachers attend courses at the BTC so that they may be an integral part of the reform. If BTC graduates apply the methods and techniques studied in BTC, then teachers will be preparing lifelong learning, qualified employees. Teaching isn’t only about completing the assigned chapters or teaching specific knowledge. It is about lifelong knowledge, skills, and values that teachers have to deliver to their students. I can predict that after 5-8 years there will be a visible change in the quality of teachers, students, and education; for the better.” (Khadija Jaffar)

“Education in general is a good place to start when working on country reform and progress. Some questions come to mind however. Are students given equal chances and opportunities to successfully complete their studies? Is counselling available for them to choose what’s best for their future? Is their training job-specific enough for them to become qualified employees? How can we work together to build a society full of cooperation, and how can  we build unity in diversity?” (Samira El Ouali)