The Empowering Educators: Tamkeen program supports the development of qualified and skilled teachers and school leaders who can support ADEC as it aims to enhance the quality of educational outcomes achieved by students. All training materials are tied to competency standards and are benchmarked to international best practices. The three-year program was launched in February, 2012, and provided training to school leaders and teachers from February – July. A total of 182 schools participated in the program and an additional 66 schools are set to join the program for the 2012/13 school year. According to Dr. Mugheer Khamis Al Khaili, ADEC’s Director General, teacher training is of critical importance to realizing the goals of the New School Model. “Any attempts at school improvement will not succeed unless leaders and teachers successfully implement reforms in schools and classrooms. School leaders are receiving training to assist them in leading school reform and teachers need training to support these goals in the classroom. Teachers are the ones who are in the classrooms, with the students- all day, every day. Teachers need training and support to ensure that they are able to provide the highest quality education, in order to support school improvement and student achievement, which is the goal of the program,” he said. For the 2012/13 school year, teacher training will be provided on a number of subjects, based on needs identified at each school through an extensive Training Needs Analysis (TNA). Additionally, a library of training materials is currently under development to ensure that trainings are available to meet needs identified by school principals throughout the school year. For the 2012/13 school year, over 5,000 teachers are projected to receive training through the Empowering Educators: Tamkeenprogram.