Licensure System of Education Professionals: A Case Study in the UAE

Teachers are the most critical factor in students' learning among all school-level aspects. Many countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced licensure systems to ensure that the teaching profession as well as other educational professions are governed by professional standards and practitioners of education are meeting these standards. In this paper, we address the Educational Professions Licensure system implemented by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in the UAE in terms of its design, components, implementation tools, processes, and challenges. This paper highlights the foundations of the licensure system along with the procedure of licensing education professionals and it demonstrates the implementation of education licensure national tests. In addition, it explains the challenges of introducing the licensure system along with the future plans.