Should You Judge A School By Its Library?

...Apparently, according to a new report from the KHDA.

According to the recently released report, 'The Story Unfolds: More, Better And Happier Lifelong Learning In Dubai: Private Education in Dubai 2015/16,' 'Outstanding' schools have significantly more books.

The report notes that while there are 2.4 million books in total across schools in Dubai, it's the 'Outstanding' schools which have the most average books, more than 29,500 of them.

The report goes on to note that, 'Good' schools have on average just over 20,000 books within their premises, 'Acceptable' schools around 8,600 and 'Weak' schools only around 3,000.

Interestingly, the same pattern falls across fee brackets with schools charging fees of over Dhs 40,000 having almost 25,000 books per school, while those charging less than Dhs 10,000 own only around 11,000.

The report also highlights growth in student enrollment since 2011/12, with the IB curriculum recording the highest figures at 55 percent. The UK curriculum showed 40 percent growth and the Indian curriculum 28 percent. Overall student growth in Dubai was 5.8 percent.

The report notes that schools make up 1.7 percent of Dubai's GDP and in total tuition fees generate a staggering 6.1 billion dirhams per year.

The UK curriculum is still the Dubai's most popular, with 65 schools across the city, the Indian and US curriculums have 32 and 31 schools respectively while the IB and Ministry of Education have only 11 each.

The report also recorded areas of student growth, these were highest across 'New' Dubai, the Palm and Dubai South, while 'medium' growth was recorded in Muhaisanah and Al Barsha 3, and the remainder of Dubai noted only minimal growth.