Parents must make several decisions regarding their children’s education, not the least of which is where to enrol them. For instance, they need to choose between private and state schools and between international and local schools.
Of course, in the United Arab Emirates, where approximately 90% of the population comprise foreign expatriates, most parents’ default choices are private international schools like GEMS First Point School. While UAE government schools are an option, expats must pay to attend them, so they’re effectively fee-paying schools in this regard.
More importantly, government schools in the UAE use Arabic as the primary language of instruction. Understandably, this can be a major challenge to those who do not know the language.
Furthermore, UAE government schools also exclusively use the Ministry of Education (MoE) national curriculum. Expat parents might find this less than ideal if they’re planning to send their children overseas for third-level education or are themselves planning to return with their family to their home country in the future.
If you live in the UAE, your decision about your child’s education will likely boil down to choosing which private international school you will choose for your children.
Read on to learn about the factors you can use to assess which private international school is the best for your child.
1. The Curriculum
According to the latest data from the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), there are 17 different curricula in Dubai. Meanwhile, the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK) reports there are 14 curricula in Abu Dhabi. In other words, selecting a curriculum in the UAE can be more challenging than one might think.
The right curriculum will vary depending on your circumstances and your priorities. In other words, the best curriculum for you may not be the best for a work colleague and vice versa.
Logically speaking, if you are British and your children will be going back to the United Kingdom for higher education, the British curriculum is likely your curriculum of choice. Likewise, suppose you are an American in the UAE and expect your children to return to the United States for college; in that case, you will probably decide on an American curriculum school.
However, there are other factors to consider aside from where you plan to send your children for college. Even if your children will go to a local university, you may decide to go for a British or American school. Even if your child might attend a U.K. university, you may still choose to enrol them in a school that offers the Indian curriculum.
Each curriculum has its pros and cons. If you don’t know which curriculum to choose, perhaps knowing which one parents generally prefer can help.
In Dubai, the British curriculum (officially the National Curriculum of England, Wales and Northern Island) is the most popular international school curriculum, with 36% of the 326,001 private school students (as of November 2022) enrolled in a British curriculum school.
The Indian curriculum ranks second, with a 26% share of private school student enrolment, while the American curriculum is the third favourite, with 15%.
2. Academic Quality and Success
An excellent curriculum is for nought if it is not properly applied. Therefore, assess your school of choice’s quality of instruction and the nitty-gritty of programme implementation.
This is not something you can ascertain just by observing the school dynamics during an open house. One day won’t be enough to evaluate school facilities, equipment, programmes, administrators, and teachers.
Thus, you have to rely on established measures of academic quality. This includes a school’s results in standardised tests, national regulatory body inspection outcomes, and the school alumni’s university destinations.
Standardised measures for British schools include the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), A Levels, and Business and Technology Education Council (BTEC) exams.
Specifically, an excellent school helps its students earn their GCSEs, A Levels and BTEC qualifications. After all, equipping students for the succeeding stage of their lives — whether college, university or a job — is a school’s primary mission.
Therefore, when checking out your child’s prospective British school, look at its GCSE and BTEC qualification pass rates and its students’ A Level performances. For American schools, you may evaluate the students’ SAT scores and advanced placement statistics.
Additionally, you can check out the education department’s rating of your child’s prospective school.
In Dubai, the KHDA rates schools as outstanding, very good, good, acceptable, or weak. You naturally want an outstanding or very good overall rating. Still, even a school rated good can be exceptional when you look at it closely, specifically by checking out its ratings across individual inspection items (e.g., students’ attainment in science, mathematics, English, etc.).
You can also look at the university destinations of school alumni.
Students do have individual needs and preferences. However, if your child wishes to go to university after sixth form, you want a school that is more than capable of delivering admissions to your target learning institutions.
For instance, suppose one of your primary reasons for deciding on a British school is your plan to send your child to the United Kingdom for further education. In this case, it is reasonable to assess a school’s academic quality using its higher education application and acceptance rates in U.K. universities.
3. Best Fit
Education must be tailored to individual needs; this much is obvious. Therefore, the best school for one child may not be the best for another.
Thus, when looking for the best private international school for your child, you must consider your child’s particular needs and use them as your ultimate deciding factor.
Is your child on the fast track to a professional career in golf? In this case, a school that offers a professional golf programme alongside its regular academic curriculum should be perfect.
How about if you have a gifted child, one who has garnered an exceptional rating or scored above 130 on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT4)? You may want a school that has a programme for gifted children.
Likewise, if your child is a talented athlete, leader, performer, or visual artist, you’d want a school that accepts, recognises and supports non-traditional or non-academic types of intelligence. A school that provides ample and appropriate care, support and attention to your child’s unique abilities is the best in this scenario.
Choose the Right Private International School
It can be difficult choosing a private international school for your child.
To start your selection, narrow down your options according to your preferred curriculum.
Next, assess your shortlisted schools according to their academic quality and success and how they can fulfil your child’s individual needs.
AUTHOR BIO
Jinky Elizan is a content writer for SEO Sherpa. She has more than 15 years’ experience producing content for SEO, inbound marketing and link building as well as copy for web pages and social media. She also develops WordPress websites.