Daily Insider: Dubai schools growth signals expat shift

Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has released some interesting numbers around the growth of the private schooling sector in the emirate.

According to the KHDA, the number of students attending private schools in Dubai has more than doubled since the 2007/08 academic year, with the number of learners having increased from 156,504 to 365,572 today.

To cater for this demand, the number of schools in the emirate has also increased from 136 in 2007/08 to 220 in 2022/23. Added to this, KHDA says that at least 5 new schools have opened in the current academic year of 2023/24.

With the increase in the number of schools, the quality of education has also improved, with KHDA saying that 77 per cent of students were enrolled in schools rated as “good or better” during the 2022/23 academic year. This compares to just 30 per cent during 2007/08.

Taking a step back, the number of schools in Dubai have had to increase because of the fast-growing population in the city.

Data from Dubai’s Statistics Centre has highlighted that the emirate of Dubai’s population crossed the 3.5 million mark in 2023, marking an increase of 2.1 per cent when compared to 2022.

In 2008, the population in the emirate of Dubai was just 1.6 million, according to the Statistics Centre.

With the population effectively doubling, it’s clear that more families are calling Dubai home. The expanse of the city further inland, with new estates popping up is a further signal of this.

As a father myself with a wife, two children (and pets); it’s been clear to me how Dubai has shifted into an increasingly family friendly city. Add in the incredible safety here, along with the growing number of quality schools and the wide array of activities for children — and there’s no doubt that the makeup of the city is set to increasingly change over the years to come.