As more expat families move to Dubai, new enrollments in the city’s school have gone up, according to experts in the education industry.
“We have taken in nearly 1,800 new students this year in our 10 schools. We anticipate that our enrollment will be up around the 6,000 mark, up from 5,300 last year and, therefore, we’ve had a 12 per cent increase in the school population,” Clive Pierrepont, Director of Communications at Taaleem schools told this website.
“The number of students is ever-increasing. I’ve been in this school for six years now and new sections are being added each year. We have a packed day, one class after the other,” a teacher in a private school in Dubai told this website on the condition of anonymity.
Yet, many parents complain about the lack of seats in many schools. “I’ve been trying to get my daughter in Dubai International Academy (DIA) for the past three years. They give us the option of Raffles, which I understand is a sister school. It’s very difficult getting a place in the school of my choice,” an Indian parent living in the Meadows said.
A spokesperson of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), confirmed to this website that “last academic year, we had more than 207,000 students.”
And, this growth has been consistent over the years, indicating the strong potential of the sector. The last available figures show that in the year 2011/2012, the city’s private schools registered a 7.4 per cent growth in enrolment compared to 2010/11.
Likewise, the number of Emirati students has also undergone significant growth. More than half of Emirati students in Dubai attend private schools, making up 14.4 per cent of the student population.
With the increase in the number of new students, education providers are opening new schools to cater to the demand. Recently, GEMS Education announced to open 10 new schools in the UAE over the next two years to meet growing demand.
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