BEAM Education Plans New Sharjah Schools

In a recent interview BEAM CEO Salah Bukhatir said the Sharjah based BEAM Group planned to launch two further schools in the emirate.

Interestingly, he went on to say that the proposed new schools would not be the dual-curriculum offerings that BEAM has become synonymous with, instead, they were likely to be CBSE curriculum schools.

The news comes as a surprise as the group is known for its dual-curriculum Creative Science brand of schools which focus on Arabic and Islamic education.

BEAM currently operates two dual curriculum schools in Dubai (UK and US), plus one UK dual curriculum and two US dual curriculum schools in Sharjah.

“They [the new schools] may be of other curricula, such as the CBSE Indian curriculum, but that’s something that isn’t concrete yet. But two more schools in Sharjah are coming. The first one will not be launched before two years from now,” he told Gulf News.

The group currently enrols 7,500 students across its five school, however Bukhatir said the group plans a total of 25,000 when all schools come on line.

“I think we need more schools in all segments, and there should be competition in all segments, because there are, even in the high bracket schools, schools which are not doing enough. They are charging high fees but they are not doing enough. And you have schools in the lower bracket, although they have restrictions in tuition [fees], yet they are doing very well and you see very good results,” Bukhatir added.