Parents scrambling for admission to schools in Dubai may soon become a thing of the past. The Knowledge and Human Development Authority chief, Dr Abdulla Karam, has confirmed that "anything between 15 and 20 new schools will open in the emirate for the 2016-17 academic year".
The chairman of the board of directors and director-general of the regulatory body confirmed that this is the highest growth in terms of number of schools opening in a single year. "Anything between 15 and 20 schools could open in Dubai this year," said Karam. However, details of the school curriculum and locations will be revealed by June or July this year once school principals are appointed.
The KHDA released its annual Education Landscape Report revealing important statistical data on the private school landscape in Dubai. According to the report, there are 298,341 seats available across private schools. However, 89 per cent of the seats in these schools are already occupied.
Speaking on the sidelines of the event, Karam said: "From an investor's point of view, there is great potential in the education sector. Also, the education market is highly transparent and with the kind of choices that parents have in education now, it looks like the market has really matured. Each school has a unique offering, and that is definitely a sign of maturity."
The report states that the schools make Dh6.1 million in revenue and 1.7 per cent of Dubai's GDP is generated by private schools. He said: "Schools are focusing on teaching STEM, the arts, co-curriculars, environmental studies, different languages, and other offerings, making each of them unique in their own manner...Even the construction of school buildings are unique, giving parents the option to make smart choices for their children."
Karam stated that parents will definitely have the power to make a weighted choice based on how they'd like to educate their kids. Currently, Dubai has 173 schools and seven new schools opened in the 2015-16 academic year. The schools are housing a whooping 265,299 students of which 58 per cent are Emirati. The schools have a 5.6 per cent student enrollment growth annually, which is expected to increase exponentially, according to Karam.
Most popular
The report revealed that British curriculum is the most popular in Dubai, with 65 schools operating with the UK curriculum housing 84,612 students. Indian curriculum schools came in a close second with 32 schools housing 78,716 students and US curriculum came in third with 31 schools with 48,493 students. International Baccalaureate (IB) and MoE schools are 11 each, housing 15,161 and 14,353 students, respectively. There are six Iranian curriculum schools in Dubai.
Speaking about the nationalities of the students, it was found that there are 183 nationalities in the schools with Indian students being the most, followed by UAE nationals and Pakistani students.
The most common names in Dubai schools are Mohammed among boys; and Maryam among girls. Top 5 family names are Ahmed, Ali, Hussain, Khan and Kumar.
Reading Initiatives
The report paid special focus on reading habits of students in private schools and noted that 63 per cent of students read at least 30 minutes a day outside of school and there is an average of 70 books in each child's house. There are 2.4 million books in libraries of private schools in Dubai and the better the rating of the schools, the more the books.
Schools rated outstanding have 29,575 books and schools with tuition fees over Dh40,000 have an average of 24,786 books. Weak schools only have 2,959 books in their libraries.
University education
Students from across the globe come to the UAE to earn skills in Dubai's international education institutions. Dubai plays host to 26,125 students. Around 33 per cent of students travel from abroad to study in Dubai and 67 per cent of the students are UAE residents. Universities are witnessing a 7.5 per cent growth in student enrollment. The most number of graduates and enrollments are in Business studies, closely followed by Engineering studies.
dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com
Page last updated 31 December 2019