Dubai: The decision of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) of India to rank its affiliated schools based on the performance of students in science and mathematics has sparked a debate in the United Arab Emirates. Parents and principals here are debating whether it is fair to judge students based on their performance in only two subjects.

CBSE chairman Ashok Ganguly had said that the new ranking system would help schools in India to compete better internationally.

According to the new system, schools will have to submit 20 of its best pupils from grade 4, 5 and 8 for a special test.

Schools will then be rated based on their performance.

"Ranking schools will provide a better idea to parents to decide on which school their child should attend," the Gulf News quoted Ashok Kumar, principal of the Indian High School here, as saying.

"Mathematics, science and a language are core subjects which form the basis of any education. I feel such rankings will provide parents with a list of schools that are rated high in performance."

However, V.K. Mathu, principal of the Abu Dhabi Indian School, disagreed.

According to him, it was unfair to rank schools because not all have the same quality of infrastructure and accessibility to learning tools, the newspaper reported.

Rani George, principal of the Global English School in Al Ain, was of the opinion that all subjects should be given equal importance.

Of the 9,581 CBSE - affiliated schools worldwide, 50 are in the UAE and most children of the 1.4 million-strong expatriate Indian community in this Gulf nation attend these schools. IANS