The South China Morning Post recently reported that Dubai could be a “gateway for Hong Kong Businesses looking to invest in the Middle East”. The article went on to emphasise the attraction of the UAE as a business hub for investment, with hundreds of business licenses already granted to Far East firms.
In the UAE itself The National hasreported that the number of students at the new Chinese School has soared, and that “more and more students are coming from mainland China” as a result of inward investment into the UAE.
With the UAE well known for its favourable business conditions, and high trust environment, continued investment from the Far East Asia is expected to continue, and will bring with it opportunities in other sectors, particularly as families gravitate to the UAE.
One of the lessons that has been learned from Dubai’s growth has been how important a strong education offering is in support of the economy. The emirate offers an incredible diversity of school choice, and curricular. In fact, over 19 different curricular exist in the emirate.
With more families arriving from China and Hong, EdStatica.com is predicting a greater focus on bi-lingual education, and specifically English and Mandarin programmes within schools. In bilingual immersion education, students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like maths, science, and history.
The time spent in each language depends on the model used by each specific school.
In many cases bi-lingual immersive schools, because they provide an ‘immersive’ language experience, are able to teach children to speak fluently in two or more languages. Bi-lingual schools may also be more expensive because of additional staffing requirements.
EdStatica.com and BBD Education are collaborating to garner public opinion on language choice and how to better deliver future schools and nurseries in the UAE around parent wants. Focus groups, and a survey are spearheading the drive to uncover the importance of languages in today’s schools.
This survey will facilitate a better understanding of how well current schools in the UAE are seen to be teaching second languages, as well as to assess the opportunity for a bi-lingual school(s) where more than one language is learned by being immersed in it.
David Westley, Co-Founder of education data and insights service, EdStatica.com commented: “We’re very keen to learn about parents’ perceptions of bi-lingual education, which is seeing significantly increasing interest in the UAE. With families moving from around the world to Dubai, the education sector will naturally adapt, and new opportunities will arise. We believe language could become a key differentiator, especially in the highly competitive premium school sector.”
James Mullan, Co-Founder of EdStatica.com, sees the arrival if expatriates from Far East Asia currently driving the biggest opportunities. He said: “It could also be argued that Mandarin, along with Arabic is the language of the future, so we expect traditional schools will develop ECA programmes to cater for this growing demand.”
Shaun Robison, CEO of BBD Education commented on the survey “The survey provides parents with the opportunity to voice their opinions on bi-lingual education, which we know is in greater demand as a result of the evolving demographics of the UAE. Parents in the UAE have been very vocal about their interests and needs, and the fact that Dubai boasts 19 different curricula is a testament to the diversity of the sector, and the role that parental demand plays in shaping the market.”
The deadline for completing the survey is the 31st May, 2023 and further information can be found here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YZCBW8L
UAE Schools in Numbers
The UAE is said to be the world largest private school market. In total EdStatica.com estimates total fee revenue of 19.6bn AED from 627,870 students.
EdStatica currently estimates there to be 453 private schools in the UAE which it deems to be international.
Private schools in the UAE tend to be significantly larger than counterparts in Europe. The average number of students in a UAE school is 1,386, with fees of 31,196 AED. However, the largest school has 10,500 students, while the most expensive has average annual fees (across year groups) of 106,000 AED (before discounts).
US, IB, Indian and UK curriculum schools currently dominate the market, but in the last 5 years we have seen new schools coming in to represent other languages and other communities, for example with new Italian, Chinese, and French schools.
EdStatica is predicting investment and growth in the number of new schools with a target to double Dubai’s population by 2030.
Enrollment numbers at schools (where there is capacity) are currently seeing growth of between 8 to 12% according to EdStatica.com.
About Edstatica
EdStatica combines three forms of data to provide an unparalleled view of the performance of individual schools within the international school sector. This data simply cannot be found elsewhere.
About BBD Education
BBD Education is an education management company based out of the United Arab Emirates. BBD supports, advises, and guides investors, developers, school operators and regulators across the Middle East, India and Singapore.
