Enrolment at Dubai’s private schools increased by 5.8% per cent since February 2021

Dubai’s private schools will not be eligible for any fee increase for the 2022-23 academic year, authorities have announced.

This comes as the latest Education Cost Index (ECI) which measures annual changes in the costs of running a school, including salaries, rent and utilities – was set at -1.01 per cent this year. The index is calculated by the Dubai Statistics Centre.

This is the third year straight that schools were told to keep fees unchanged.

Mohammed Darwish, CEO of Regulations and Permits Commission at Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KDHA), said: “Dubai’s private schools continue to demonstrate strong growth and resilience, driven by the trust and confidence of families. Our robust fee framework ensures complete transparency and balances the expectations of families and schools.”

Enrolment at Dubai’s private schools increased by 5.8 per cent since February 2021. Around 21 new schools have opened in Dubai over the past three years, taking the total to 215.

According to the UAE Government website, private schools in Dubai are allowed to increase fees based on results of KHDA inspections and the ECI.

For the 2018-2019 academic year, the Dubai government had imposed a fee freeze on all private schools to help ease the financial burden on parents. The next year (2019-2020), schools were allowed to increase fees by a maximum of 4.14 per cent. Since then, fees have remained steady.

The ECI and the Fee Framework were developed in 2012 in collaboration with multiple Dubai Government entities.