The Best Indian Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best Indian Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
GEMS Our Own English High School Dubai
Our view of GEMS Our Own English High School
Web: https://www.gemsoo-dubai.com
KHDA: Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-our-own-english-high-school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/all-through/gems-english-high-school-al-warqaa-3/
GEMS Our Own English High School ranked The Best Indian Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates at The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024. Pictured: The Senior Leadership Team.
If GEMS Modern Academy is the most academically ambitious, and sophisticated, of all GEMS Indian curriculum schools in the Emirates, then GEMS Our Own English is where you will find its heart.
Established in 1968 by K S Varkey and his wife Mariama Varkey, Our Own English High School is the oldest school in the GEMS Group and the school which “laid the golden egg” for an education group that today has done more for the Indian diaspora and future generations of Indian children in the UAE than any other by a very, very long mile.
Read more on the extraordinary, beautiful and humane late Mariama Varkey
With some 11,000 children this is giant school by any standards, but, wow, what takes place here, what is achieved here, is so special it’s impossible to capture in words. The school is like a small village, filled to the brim with children on fire with the opportunities presented to them across a stretched curriculum that defies what should be possible within its fees. It’s arguably too the single most sought-after school in the Emirates – and the reason is because this comes about as near to a (very beautiful and life-filled) home for children as you can imagine.
GEMS Our Own English High School really, really matters to GEMS – and what you see here is an absolute commitment to the wellbeing and happiness of children with whatever investment is required on tap to deliver that, whenever it is needed. The school has a humanities stream that sets a benchmark for what all Indian schools should be doing for their children, and creates a vibrancy, excitement and passion for learning that you do not find anywhere else, however good the school.
GEMS Our Own English High School is a potent, deeply moving mix of history, investment, scale, commitment, conviction educationalists, inspired school leadership, the support of GEMS to the nth, a curriculum that stretches with compassion, and a profound commitment to inclusion…. the combination leads to a profoundly beautiful, distinctive and important school for the Emirates. Look beyond the fees to what is achieved here and you cannot but be so much more than impressed.
Some interesting points to note at the outset:
- Fees are around a third of competing KHDA Outstanding schools
- The School roll is around three times higher than competing KHDA Outstanding schools
- Teacher turnover is lower than all competing schools in the segment
- GEMS Our Own English High School runs dedicated Science, Humanities and Commerce streams to ensure breadth of subject choice and opportunities for all students
- Inclusion is higher than competing KHDA Outstanding schools
“One of the oldest schools in the country and the flagship school of GEMS, Our Own Dubai has been providing outstanding education and support to students from across the globe for over five decades since 1968.”
GEMS Our Own English High School may not be a school that comes to mind when you roll off a list of the best schools in the UAE. In part this is because the Indian curriculum schools sector gets far less acclaim and acclaim than it should. Often misunderstood, many focus on the US, British or IB curriculum schools as being the top performing – and nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, less kindly, we would say that such views border on prejudice. The best Indian curriculum schools in Dubai deliver every bit as outstanding an education for their children than alternative curricular schools – and in many ways better. Some even combine their curricular with international alternatives. The strengths of an Indian curriculum education, at its very best, offer all the breadth of its counterparts, and deep cultural connections with the community it deserves. Some of the most outstanding Performing Arts programmes we have seen in UAE schools, including in Dance, have been at Indian curriculum schools. Attainment in Science is, taken as a whole, off-the-scale. The KHDA, Dubai’s pioneering and exceptionally gifted schools regulator, recognised this long before others to its absolute credit.
The challenges we face in evaluating Indian curriculum schools are as follows:
- Indian families, for a whole host of quite complex socio-economic and cultural reasons favour schools that offer quite limited curriculums. Focus is very much on those subject groupings that will afford access to professional journeys in Accountancy and Medicine. In part this is because of a recognition that these disciplines, and the careers that follow, offer their children the best opportunity for a successful life, this judged primarily in economic terms, but also in terms of prestige. This is not true of all Indian families, but a generalisation. There are as many differences in the Indian community of parents as any other. But there is a general truth in this. It is certainly why we find many schools arguing that our focus on breadth of subject offer is pointless as it will, in the main, fall on deaf ears.
- Many Indian curriculum schools have extremely large rolls. Again, the reasons for this are many, but lie rooted in the inequality of opportunity faced by many Indian families who simply cannot access the professions, or salaries in the UAE that they arguably might have expected. For many years the UAE faced a situation in which there was a crisis of lack of places in schools for Indian children. Organizations, of which GEMS Education above all others deserves profound credit, stepped in to save the day and ensure every Indian child could access a high-quality education – and it has been doing this since the moment it was founded. The challenge, however, facing organisations like GEMS Education, is that many Indian families do not have the disposable income to pay the fee structures you find in alternative curricular schools. This is why most Indian curricular schools are extremely large. By accepting a very large number of children, costs can be amortised, and schools funded sufficiently to deliver outstandingly well for children.
As part of our analysis then, we have to some degree work within the spirit of Indian curriculum education. However, in the case of each finalist here, and against a pretty much stacked deck, the provision for children rejects this restricted curriculum, secures stellar results for its students – and employs the very best teachers possible within the limits of their fee structures.
GEMS Our Own English High School Dubai – the golden egg for GEMS Education, and one of its most historically, and contemporaneously, most important, and most loved, schools.
Against this backdrop, GEMS Our Own English High School dazzles. For many, the two schools more traditionally associated as being at the “top of the tree” in their provision of an Indian education are The Indian High School and GEMS Modern Academy. But it is Sunny Varkey, Founder and Executive Chairman of GEMS Education, that recognises Our Own as the school that “laid the golden egg” for GEMS Education – from which all that it has achieved for children in the emirates, regardless of curricular or nationality, has developed. This is a school that has a character built on that history with an education so dynamic, in no small part because of its scale, that it defies that scale and takes the breath away in its ambition and delivery for children, young men and young women. Young people thrive here. And, with a roll of some 10,425 children, the scale gives it both its strength, and its differentiation from both these schools. Arguably its achievements, given this scale, are remarkable.
As well as the expected Science and Commerce stream, GEMS Our Own delivers a vibrant Humanities stream with subject specialism across Political Science, Fashion Studies, Psychology, Home Science, Marketing, Physical Education, Economics, Informatics Practices and Mass Media. ECA provision stretches from Model United Nations with its focus on debating and Oracy to Elocution and Life Skills. The Extended Curriculum is delivered in a fee structure that extends from AED 7,454 to AED 15,772 for the most expensive Science Stream.
CBSE results are stellar:
We think that it is time, and shamefully long over due, to give this historically important, exceptionally high achieving, absolutely outstanding school – and very beautiful school for children its place in the limelight as the shining star it undoubtedly is in Indian curriculum education in the United Arab Emirates.
Award Presentation
Best-Indian-Curriculum-GEMS-Our-Own-English-High-Winner Certificate-portrait
The Top Schools Award for Best Indian Curriculum School in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to GEMS Our Own English High School at a special Breakfast Celebration at The Emirates Golf Club on the morning of 16th November 2023. At the event the recipient of The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 for Outstanding Contribution to Education will be revealed.
Historic winners of the Outstanding Contribution to Education in the UAE Award include H.E. Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority, recognised for his era defining leadership of Education in Dubai as a force for good; and the Varkey Family, for their instrumental role in shaping education in the UAE, and ensuring the life chances for generations of children, following the founding of GEMS Education in 1959.
Our Finalists.
Our extraordinary Finalists and those schools which have achieved outstandingly in so many ways for children in the Best Indian Curriculum School category follow. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to Indian Curriculum education in the UAE:
Ambassador School Dubai
Web: https://www.ambassadorschool.com
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/ambassador-school
“For parents set on an ICSCE Indian curriculum education, Ambassador school Dubai is one of few options available to parents in Dubai. The school faces fierce competition and in recent years has very significantly upped its game. Today the school is ranked Very Good with Outstanding Features by a very demanding schools’ regulator – and, cut through the marketing, and it truly shows. Community and relationships with parents are standout and school leadership, despite pushing significant responsibility onto them to engage with children and play a shared role in the education of their children, is highly regarded. CISCE stretch is evident in the culture of innovation that permeates teaching – and the school is insistent on its absolute rejection of traditional approaches to rote teaching that many see as holding back Indian Curriculum education for generations of students historically. Personal development is stand-out, with students engaged, conscious and appreciative of the international context of their education. It’s probably fair to say that a CBSE curriculum would have been simpler to deliver, been more universally sought after by parents – and given the school more space to shine, so it is a credit to the school that it has remained true to its convictions and belief that the CISCE curriculum delivers better for aspirational students.”
Delhi Private School Dubai
Web: https://website.dpsdubai.com
KHDA: Very Good and Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/delhi-private-school-dubai
https://schoolscompared.com/all-through/delhi-private-school-gardens-jebel-ali/
“A much-loved CBSE curriculum school, created and driven by a family of committed educationalists and an impassioned belief in the UAE, its people and the close relationship between India and the Emirates. Standout subject pathways are evident in a life-filled humanities stream eschewed by far too many Indian curriculum schools operating restricted business and science streams. The impact is enormous in a school that sparkles with the evident happiness of its children, and parental feedback is both moving and the better side of outstanding. The school matters to its longstanding Principal and owners as a vehicle to make a difference in the world and the ambition to deliver an outstanding education at an affordable level for families runs deep. ECA are broad in scope and richness of delivery, another highlight of a school that understands that education must be much more than delivering pieces of paper. The owner’s frustrations with an inability to secure land to expand the school and provide even more opportunities in Technology and Sport are addressed with a conscientious to deliver to the maximum with what is present, and investment is ongoing and meaningful. The Group’s expansion into British education too, has seen a wealth of shared experience flow back and forth to the benefit of children – and there is no standing on laurels or complacency in mapping provision to a world and its industries making ever more demands on what outstanding schools are expected to deliver. Worth noting too the school’s pioneering and historic role in establishing The Gardens Community. Without it, it would be a pale imitation of the vibrant community it is today for its families and a very long way from the English Garden City on which it was modelled.”
GEMS Modern Academy
Web: https://www.gemsmodernacademy-dubai.com
KHDA: Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-modern-academy
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/ib-diploma-schools-in-uae/gems-modern-academy-nad-al-sheba-3/
“GEMS flagship Indian Curriculum School, and the single Outstanding Indian Curriculum School in Dubai, GEMS Modern is a CISCE powerhouse which, year-on-year, pushes the boundaries of what can and should be expected from an Indian education that meets, at an outstanding plus level, the needs of all children. It would probably accept that it is the most academic of GEMS Indian schools and the academic stretch here is very evident. Little wonder that the school pushed the boundaries to the nth with its opening of an alternative IB Diploma pathway for its most academically gifted students. It was a move not liked by the competition, who labelled it a sell-out and compromise – but this is a hugely principled and ambitious school that concentrates on delivering for children and education, not on the past or the distractions of gossip. Both subject and qualification pathways are outstanding in breadth, and no one should underplay the role the school, and GEMS Education, are playing in working through how the very best of an Indian Education can be maintained whilst also delivering to the demands of a modern world that requires innovators and global leaders able to shape the world rather than complacently follow rules to pick up salary checks. School life buzzes in a community that plays to this concentration on innovation and inspiring and supporting thinking that traverse subjects and the walls between Science, Mathematics and the Arts as if they did not exist at all. The happiness of students and care for their welfare is placed centre stage in a school that knows that encouraging and supporting this level of academic achievement requires it. With almost four decades of history behind it, this is a school that carries the torch for GEMS investment in Indian Education. It is a testament to its impact that you can see elements of its innovations reflected and rolled out across the GEMS Network of schools giving it a role, significance and impact unique in the UAE.”
The Indian High School, Dubai
Web: https://ihsdubai.org
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/indian-high-school-dubai
“You cannot begin to understand Indian curriculum education in Dubai without recognising the achievements and history of the Indian High School. Historically the emirate’s only other KHDA Outstanding school, today the school battles away on a mission to regain its crown in a report that extends to an almost across- the-board Very Good ranking with a not small number of Outstanding ratings as the icing on the cake. Tracing its founding to 1961 and literally a handful of students, today the school has gained global recognition from an alumni network stretching across the world. That handful of students has grown today to over 14,000 students across all its branches and schools, so the stakes are high. Around 5000 students fill to bursting the Senior School Oud Metha campus recognised here. Resolutely CBSE, this was the school that had shown that the CBSE curriculum could give a good fight to its ISCSE counterpart…. time will tell whether the school can recapture its Outstanding mojo from regulators. Fees offer outstanding ROI and have long been used as an example of how, with sufficient scale of school roll, fees can be set at a very low level whilst still delivering an outstanding education for every child. Interesting is the school’s transparent provision of near endless optional extras. Grab them all and you could be attending one of the most expensive schools in the UAE. There is, however, no pressure put on parents to take up opportunities at whatever level of offer, they are there to signal as much as anything that the school is outward looking and will do all it can to enhance education when it can be made affordable to do so. Consistently and significantly oversubscribed, The Indian High School, because of its outstanding level of provision for students – and because of its level of provision with such low fees, sets a benchmark. Without it, generations of students would have lived very different lives and undoubtedly the UAE would have been a much poorer place in the so many ways that really count.”
A final note.
The Top Schools Awards takes over a year to produce. It engages with parents, students educators and educationalists over countless months, and the work invested in these Awards is the stuff of sleepless nights and deeply felt responsibility. We produce these Awards to celebrate our amazing schools, our magnificent teachers – who are the centre of the universe, our school leaders, whose lives will be judged by their impact on children, and the amazing students that they build a future for. These Awards are only about recognising this – in a world in which our schools and educators have far, far too little recognition. If on exploring these Awards you do one single thing, it should be to reach out to each and every one and thank them for all they do, each and every one of our schools, teachers and school leaders. You have absolutely no idea how much that would mean.
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