GEMS education today has revealed major new investment in UAE education with a record breaking intake of 2,445 new teachers at the largest-ever induction event for new new teachers ever held in the region.
In an extraordinary series of twists, Dino Varkey, Chief Executive Officer, GEMS Education, speaking exclusively with SchoolsCompared, highlighted a series of changes that have taken place this year including that:
- Growth rates like this have not been seen at this level in the UAE since 2015- 16 – and before this, back to 2004
- The Growth in population is particularly fuelling demand for premium, Tier 1 Outstanding schools with demand for places outstripping supply in this segment
- The Group continues to invest powerfully in the region – including in its landmark new British curriculum school in Al Waha, a satellite of Dubai’s Sustainable City. GEMS Metropole Al Waha launches as a leader in sustainability with qualification and subject pathways leading to specialisms in Engineering, Electronics and the Automotive sector. Read our First Look review of the new flagship school here. Further, it was confirmed today, a new GEMS Founders is to open in Masdar Abu Dhabi in 2024.
In its sixty fourth year, GEMS Education today is one of the UAE’s biggest success stories across any industry – as one of the largest and oldest Kindergarten to Grade 12 / Year 13 private education providers in the world. GEMS educates some 130,000 students in the MENA region alone across over 60 schools. Given its scale, it has been extraordinarily well-placed to respond to the new demand, one driven in no small part because of global perception of the UAE as a safe and prosperous destination and home for families in an increasingly destabilised world. The net impact has been an extraordinary growth in the number of millionaires to the region.
Dino Varkey, Chief Executive Officer, GEMS Education said:
“Dubai has benefitted from high income reallocation and the reallocation of income from both the East and the West.”
Today’s event, attended by SchoolsCompared.com, welcomed 2,445 passionate educators from around the world to its network of 44 schools across the UAE and Qatar.
Teachers were welcomed from every part of the world, but particularly from the United Kingdom, United States and India. 196 Emirati nationals were also welcomed into GEMS Education for the new academic year, as the Group continues to heavily support the region’s push for Emiratisation.
The Best Teachers in the World
Sunny Varkey speaking at GEMS Awareness Day 2023
GEMS Awareness Day 2023 was attended by the most senior members of GEMS’ leadership worldwide, including its visionary Founder, Mr Sunny Varkey, who spoke, to the capacity audience of teachers, of the crucial importance they played in an ever-challenging, fast-changing world:
“It is you who will build a bridge from the present to the future, taking us from where we are to where we want to be, turning our dreams into reality. It is also you that will help the next generation to face what are perhaps the biggest challenges in history – sweeping technological changes, growing inequality, and of course climate change.
“Your burden is great, your purpose is clear, and your choice is noble. I am truly honoured to meet all of you today. Thank you for choosing to be teachers. And thank you for joining GEMS Education.”
Dino Varkey at GEMS Awareness Day 2023 at the Atlantis hotel on The Palm, Dubai
The massive increase in family relocations to the UAE has also seen demand from the very best teachers in the world to relocate to the UAE. Dino Varkey, Group Chief Executive Officer, GEMS Education continued:
“At GEMS, we go to great lengths to hire the best teachers in the world, and provide a stimulating and rewarding environment for their careers to thrive. Our recruitment teams interview thousands of educators to ensure that we hire outstanding teachers to deliver a quality education to our learners.
Mr Varkey continued:
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome all our new teachers to the GEMS family and I wish them an excellent start to the new academic term.”
Sustainability
The theme for this year’s GEMS Awareness Day was sustainability. As well as launching the landmark new GEMS Metropole School – Al Waha, the event highlighted GEMS alignment with the UAE’s Green Education strategy.
GEMS’ sustainability commitment includes ensuring that all its teachers are UNCC Climate Literacy certified by October 2023, with the journey towards this goal due to be presented at the upcoming 60th anniversary of United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in Geneva.
Dr Saima Rana, Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education, explained:
“Fostering a zero-waste society is one of the five pillars of our long-term education strategy. As educators, we have a responsibility to teach young people to be guardians of the planet and use their skills, intellect, and ingenuity to create solutions that will solve global challenges.
“As a nation, we have the privilege of hosting COP28 this year, and GEMS students and teachers will have the opportunity to play a part in this historic event. Sustainability and climate literacy will be merged into all core curricula, underpinning the way we teach, learn and, ultimately, the way we live.”
GEMS schools have taken an active lead on sustainability and green campaigns through a number of student-led projects. All have initiated a plastic-free approach, removing single-use plastic bottles and bags, while minimising plastic packaging through recycling and reduction efforts (‘Plastic free in ’23’).
You can read about one extraordinary project here where we reported on GEMS students making something so awesome it literally took our breath away as we led calls for the children’s creation to be given a home in one of the emirate’s museums.
Further information
Read about the launch of GEMS Education’s landmark new GEMS Metropole School Al Waha here.
Visit the official GEMS Education web site here and learn what seeing Genius in every child means.
© SchoolsCompared.com. A WhichMedia Group publication. 2023 – 2024. All rights reserved.
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