No Fee Increases for Dubai Schools 2022-2023
Dubai's education regulator, the KHDA, has informed Dubai private schools that they will not be eligible to raise fees for the 2022-23 academic year. It is the third year in a row the emirate's schools have not been able to raise fees.
In a circular issued on Tuesday March 1st, the authority noted that this decision has been made based on this year's Educational Cost Index (ECI), which came in at -1.01% (minus 1.01%) from the Dubai Statistic Center (DSC).
The ECI is a measure of the ongoing costs that schools incur in order to run. A negative ECI means that as far as Dubai's Statistics Office is concerned, running schools has become cheaper over the last 12 months.
Mohammed Darwish, CEO of the KHDA's Regulations and Permits Commission 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."
While schools will not be able to increase revenues by putting up fees, they have been able to by recruiting more students. The KHDA reported that the number of students within Dubai's private schools increased by 5.8% since February 2021. With a reported 21 new schools opening over the past three years in Dubai, the total number of private schools comes to 215.
According to the latest figures from education data intelligence platform EdStatica.com, Dubai's schools currently accommodate over 300,000 students, and generate revenues in excess of 10.7bn AED. Schools following a UK based curriculum generate over half of that, with revenues of 5.2bn AED, while Indian curriculum schools generate 1.1bn AED.
The Education Cost Index and the Fee Framework were developed in collaboration with government departments such as the Dubai Statistics Centre, Department of Economic Development and Dubai Chamber of Commerce.
