12.10 PM Thursday, 28 March 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:57 06:11 12:27 15:53 18:37 19:51
28 March 2024

No place for your kid in Dubai's top schools

Picture only for illustrative purpose. Most schools give priority for students who have siblings in the same school (FILE)

Published

Parents are complaining there is almost no opportunity to find a place in most of the top and good private schools in Dubai for their children.

In one school, admission for KG is closed until 2014. In another school, the waiting list to enroll a student in KG is as high as 1,000 students.

“It is almost impossible to find a place for my child in one of the good schools.

Many schools advised us to enroll our kids when they are born,” one parent said. “We’ll do it for our next child.”

In a recent survey conducted by 'Emirates24|7', we found no space for enrollment in KG in the 10 popular private schools we called in Dubai.

These schools mainly teach Ministry of Education, British and International curriculums.

'Emirates24|7' spoke to a cross section of parents who found it difficult to find space for their kids in top private schools in Dubai.

“I have been trying to find a space for my kids in the KG since November 2010.

I tried with many schools such as Al Ittihad private school and Choeifat and many other schools.

The answer I received from all of them is that they are full and they cannot take more students.

They said that even if they try, the priority is first for the students who have siblings in the same school.

After that if there was any space available, then they will try to take new applicants.”

When contacted, one of the top schools said that they have closed down registration for new students since last year.

“We are fully booked and will open registration for the KG in 2014.

This is not in our hands, we can't help the parents because we already have more than 1,000 students on our waiting list.

We even don’t have space for siblings of the current students in the school,” the principle of the school said.

In another school, the waiting list if 140 students. “We have stopped registration since February this year.

Parents must understand that we are currently facing lots of problems with applications due to the lack of space.”

'Emirates 24|7' picked up the names of the good schools from the latest ratings by Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau which comes under the Dubai Knowledge and Human Development Authority.

During the survey, most of the schools which were rated as satisfactory and unsatisfactory had spaces available. However, parents do not prefer to enroll their kids in these schools.

According to Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB), in the six months between October 2009 and March 2010, it has completed a second year of school inspections.

209 schools were inspected during this period; 78 public schools and 131 private schools.

Inspectors visited around 15,000 classes and conducted some 1,500 interviews with students and staff during the course of full inspections in schools. 

Parents of around 80,000 students completed questionnaires on-line, demonstrating once again their strong commitment to their children’s education.

The inspection results showed that five schools in Dubai (three public and two private) were rated as outstanding; 73 were rated good; 106 were rated acceptable, and 25 were unsatisfactory.

The key findings from inspections 2009 to 2010 were as following:

•    There are now three outstanding public schools and two private schools

•    Almost four out of ten schools in Dubai are good or outstanding

•    More than half of the good and outstanding schools are private schools 

•    Almost nine out of every ten schools in Dubai provide an education of at least acceptable quality

•    People in Dubai now have access to a good quality of education regardless of the curriculum they select. There are examples of good schools among those that offer all the main types of curriculum

•    Many private schools are good and a few provide a world-class quality of education

•    None of the private schools that offer the Ministry of Education curriculum was rated good overall

•    More than one in ten of the private schools in Dubai are unsatisfactory.

•    A third of the unsatisfactory schools are public schools and two thirds are private

•    Seven schools rated unsatisfactory overall in 2008-2009 have made marked progress, but the rest continue to offer students an unsatisfactory quality of education