My Reflection About English with Mr. Hedley Butterfield

When I came to the college I did the CEPA Exam for both Math and English but I didn’t have any academic studying in six years. I passed both of the subjects but the grades were above the exemption by a couple of grades. I was happy that I passed but very disappointed with myself  forthe grade because I thought I would get higher marks.

When I began studying with Mr. Hedley Butterfield, I was introduced by him to all of the students  and he was the best teacher anyone could ask for; my English began to get from good to better with him as he helps us in every step in every way, from grammar to punctuality and he is willing to help us even more.

 We have done till now three summarize which had subjects of the UAE from past, present and future. The first one was about the patrolling horsemen which was linked to the past; the second was about studying standards and literacy which referred to the future because studying  will continue as it is a never-ending process. Last but not least is the present which was about pearl diving which had history and a link to the present when they brought history to the tourism sector.

I love studying with Mr. Hedley and if I could choose which teacher that will teach us in the next semesters, it would be Mr. Hedley without any second thoughts.

A link to the past

In the 20^th century, the Arabian Gulf was one of the largest diving economies in the world where it had more than 1,000 pearling boats and employees majored in pearl diving reaching 20,000; in 1950 it nearly faded away when less expensive pearls became available to the public.

Gold stays gold as the old ones say; now two companies reconnect the past to the present by mixing them with tourism by forming Marine Environment Group (EMEG) by giving the people of the UAE and the tourist a taste of the past by diving to shallow ocean floors in search of their own pearls.

The creation of artificial pearls that was created in the Far East was a process that would finish overnight the local pearl industry; it became cheaper than the Arabian pearl which was elusive and very expensive once but now cheaper and that crashed the pearling economy in the Gulf Region.

Venturing for pearls can take up to a week in sea and the dhow held up to 300 divers; there are still pearls that are rare like the elusive pink pearl and the infamous black pearl.

 

 

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The change in literacy in the UAE

The UAE illiteracy rate when, the UAE first became a country was high, but nowadays it’s less than 10%. Research shows that students demand fewer reading classes. And now there are classes which are targeted for older people.

At the beginning the illiteracy rate of the UAE population was 75.1% but in 2010-2011 statistics from (SCAD) the Statistics Centre- Abu Dhabi showed that the rate had gone down to 6%.

In 1960-1961 there were no enrolled females in schools but nowadays, the number of males barely outweighs the number of females which is a huge difference from 50 years ago.

SCAD in their report, which included resident older than 10 years old, measured the literacy in English and Arabic but without noting the proficiency in both Arabic and English in schools. 2010-2011 reports mentioned the number of 306,497 pupils in 480 schools, of which 299 are government schools.  

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