Parents in Dubai are about to get a lot more options for their childrens' education.
By 2017, Dubai will see 27 new private schools open their doors, adding 63,000 new seats. These additions will bring the total number of private schools in the emirate to 196, providing space for 341,000 students.
"There will be an expected total of 27 new private schools by September 2016, bringing the total estimated capacity to 63,000 seats," Chief of Regulations & Permits Commission Mohammed Ahmed Darwish confirmed, according to a press released by Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority .
"This creates competitiveness among the new private schools within Dubai. Private schools then present special packages and promotional offers to attract parents of new and existing students and to occupy the highest rate of seats available. The offers include attractive installment packages and discounts for families which have more than one child in the same school. As a result, parents benefit from the competition created amongst private schools in Dubai."
The private school sector has been growing steadily over the past few years with 18 schools added between 2011 and 2014 and an additional 11 schools added in the past academic year.
“This will help in reaching the emirate’s goal of having 360,000 seats by 2020. Furthermore, the new private schools have contributed to private education by providing a variety and range of good to outstanding quality education,” Executive Director of Education Development Kalthoom Al Balooshi said.
“In order to establish the best available educational opportunities for Dubai’s private education sector, we used a variety of channels to communicate with more than 200 investors and education providers inside and outside of the UAE. This has helped in obtaining international school branches within Dubai and once again, adds to the choice of curriculums for parents to choose from.”
As of now, 87 percent of the available places in private schools throughout Dubai are full. Some 35,000 of the students currently enrolled in Dubai's privates schools hail from neighboring emirates.
With the private schools still hovering under full capacity, will enough students be enrolling within the next two years to require demand for so many new schools? Investors seem to think so. The Knowledge and Human Development Authority continues to review some 60 applications for private schools that would like to establish themselves in Dubai.