Dubai education authority tunes in to Twitter to improve its work

Dubai's education regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), says it is actively following conversations online to provide help to parents, students and teachers.

Speaking on the sidelines of the GCC Government Social Media Summit 2013 yesterday, KHDA communications manager Fida Slayman told 7DAYS: “Twitter has been very helpful to us with ‘social media listening’.

“We monitor certain keywords - especially around March/April when parents are looking for schools and don’t know what’s out there.

​Dubai's education regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), admits Twitter has been useful to helping parents, pupils and staff
Dubai's education regulator, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), admits Twitter has been useful to helping parents, pupils and staff

“We’re able to listen to a lot of conversations with parents who are saying things like ‘Do you know anything about this school?’”she said.

Slayman added: “They might not know we exist or what services we offer, but we’re able to tweet back to say ‘Here’s the last inspection report for this school’ to help them with their decision-making. We also suggest questions they should ask, especially if it’s their first time in Dubai - many of them are not used to buying education.”

The regulator also helps parents understand their rights on matters such as school and admission fees, books and extras. Slayman said the KHDA’s approach is to look at every criticism or question as an opportunity for improvement.

“We take all complaints seriously. Nobody comes to us to be negative for the sake of being negative. They come to us because they have a problem that they want to be dealt with. We see that,” she explained.

Meanwhile, the KHDA says it has also transformed its offices to become more approachable to parents offline.

Slayman said: “We are changing a lot of our internal processes to make sure the KHDA experience is as pleasurable as possible. Usually when you visit a government office, you take a number and you wait your turn.

“We don’t have that. When a customer walks into KHDA they are greeted and shown to a sofa, while somebody offers them a beverage. The customer service representative comes to them instead to say ‘How can I help you?’”

megha@7days.ae http://www.7daysindubai.com/Dubai-education-authority-tunes-Twitter-improve/story-19740579-detail/story.html