International Women’s Day 2024: The Best Schools for Girls and Young Women in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 Revealed. Top Schools Award Winner. Official.
This International Women’s Day, the theme is Inspire Inclusion. When we inspire others to understand and value women’s inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there’s a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment.
In turn, we were inspired to discover which are the best, most inclusive schools for girls and young women in the UAE.
We revisited the SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Award for Best School in the United Arab Emirates for Girls and Young Women, which celebrates those schools that, in their actions and words, recognise and celebrate the achievements of women, and understand the dynamics of how best to ensure that each girl and young women meets their full potential, talents and ambitions for the future.
If there is a single message we have learned in this Award it is this: a phenomenal school that meets in full the needs of girls and young women does not need to be an all-girls, single-sex schools; although some are. One benefit of empowering girls and young women in a co-educational school is the impacts this has on boys and young men. The world will be a better place when we all recognise the different challenges each of us face and our shared role in developing our future.
All the schools listed, in different ways, provide outstanding breadth of academic, technical and ECA options for students to ensure that every child can meet his or her individual ambitions, potential, and ability.
Each of them endeavours to provide exceptional added value to each child’s journey to ensure that every student leaves school at least meeting, and more often exceeding, baseline academic and whole child expectations.
When we have looked at schools, we have weighted those that plough back investment into facilities, teacher salaries, resources and school improvements year-on-year to improve education for children.
The Winner
The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards for
The Best School for Girls and Young Women in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024
is awarded to:
GEMS World Academy Dubai
Our view of GEMS World Academy
Web: https://www.gemsworldacademy-dubai.com/en
ADEK: Very Good with Predominant Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/gems-world-academy-dubai
It says so much about our history that still in education we do not place centre-stage so many of the greatest injustices in our history. It was not so long ago that women were denied almost any form of voice, property rights, voting rights, employments rights… almost any legal rights at all. Today, increasingly, for example within the British and IB curriculums, the history of the British and American Empires, past injustices such slavery and patriarchy are being taught – and it is not before time. Modern politics in the Western World is increasingly dominated by discussions of compensation and apology. Many of us would say… at last. It takes education to make a difference – and if we do not start facing the history of our forebears, then change does not happen. Education is at the centre of everything good in this world. Teachers are the centre of the universe – and they are our hope. Only through education do we make a better world. Through education the oppressed are given the tools of power to fight back.
And it matters. Today we think that so many problems have been resolved. Clearly, they have not. The gender pay gap is around 20% globally, and around 3 billion women around the world do not have any form of economic equality. In 2023, 50/50 Women on Boards™ (50/50WOB), the non-profit education and advocacy campaign focused on gender balance and diversity on corporate boards in the United States, announced that as of Dec. 31, 2022, women held only 28.4% of the Russell 3000 company board seats. This represented a 0.2% increase from the previous quarter, and a 1.7 percentage increase year-over-year. The percentage of women joining boards continued to slip in Q4 2022 to 36% and the percentage of women joining boards in 2022 was 39%, significantly lower than 2019 and 2021, which were over 40%. To reach gender parity by 2030, the percentage of women joining boards on an annual basis needs to surpass 50%. The same story holds true in the UK with only around 40% of women holding positions on the Boards of major companies – and there is significant dispute about the relative power of men and women even when women are in positions of seniority. Throughout the workforce worldwide, is heavily imbalanced in favour of men, to put it mildly (which of course we should not).
There is so much here that schools can do to empower young women. It starts with understanding that we must support girls and young women – and we certainly should not “spin” the story by balancing it with the issues facing young men. This loses the voices of both young men and young women. The futures of children, whether boys or girls, young men or young women, are directly bound up with each other.
Today there are many powerful and inspirational women in education across the UAE that are role models for young women. They are so needed. And there are still nowhere near enough. But education is one sector in which we can see inequality of opportunity beginning to break down, just not quickly enough. It is telling that in the Top Schools Awards, we have recognised individually more women than men for their outstanding contributions to education in leadership and in teaching – but we must do more. Those many exceptional women who lead our schools today make a clear and important statement of hope for young women.
Of all those who have inspired us, beyond words, 2023-204 marks the year of Dr Saima Rana, the quite extraordinary CEO/Principal of GEMS World Academy Dubai and Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education, the world’s largest private education provider.
We are very proud to present Dr Saima Rana, speaking in her own words:
It says so much that is positive about GEMS Education that at the very heart, and absolute centre, of its organisation, Dr. Saima Rana leads its vision for a better world. GEMS Education told us:
“With a deep commitment to providing transformative learning experiences, Dr Rana plays a pivotal role in shaping the global educational landscape. Dr Rana is also the Chief Education Ambassador for the Varkey Foundation and Founding Trustee of The Shahnaz Foundation. With a background in school improvement in inner-city schools, and a PhD in Technology and Education, Dr Rana has worked in areas with high deprivation indicators as well as affluent areas, combining traditional school improvement techniques with a commitment to collaboration between the local community and businesses in order to accelerate regeneration and raise standards.
A progressive in education, Dr Rana champions innovation and excellence in education rooted in the interest of the child. Her visionary leadership sets the course for GEMS World Academy – Dubai, fostering an environment where students thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
As the Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education, Dr Rana leads with an unwavering commitment to elevating educational standards across the GEMS Group. Through her strategic guidance, she empowers educators and instils a passion for lifelong learning, while maintaining a keen awareness of global trends and best practices.
Recognised for her thought leadership, Dr Rana actively contributes to the development of educational policies and initiatives on regional and international platforms. Her progressive approach to education has earned her admiration and respect within the educational community.”
Dr Rana brings to GEMS World Academy not only a mission to change the world, but one rooted in the deepest, all consuming care for her School. Dr Rana has brought every ounce of her experience to transforming her beloved school to multiply to the nth the opportunities for its girls, young women – and all its children.
Dr Rana has worked as a senior educational consultant for Cambridge Education Islington with a particular focus on Teaching and Learning, Raising Standards, ICT, Assessment for Learning, Curriculum, Change Management and Building Schools for the Future. She has served as a panel member and subject expert on programmes and projects for the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Standards in Education for Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), providing guidance on quality assurance, delivery and professional standards. Dr Rana is a member of the Pakistan Alliance for Girls Education (PAGE), Mosaic Community Trust (MCT), University College School (UCS), the Institute for Ethical AI in Education (IEAIED) and the BCS School Curriculum and Assessment Committee. She has sat on the Board of International Baccalaureate Schools and Colleges Association (IBSCA) and is a qualified Executive Leadership Coach. She has presented academic papers on Policy, ICT, Globalisation and Secondary Education at the Institute of Education, London; Trinity College, Dublin; The Knowledge Lab, London as well as at international conferences in Europe, the USA and China. Dr Rana has devoted herself to charitable educational projects, with a particular passion for building schools for poor children across the globe. She is the trustee of charitable schools in Pakistan and Kashmir, and provides teacher training to schools located in slum areas in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of Africa. She is a global ambassador for Girls Education initiatives and is a mental health ambassador for Refugee Mothers, where she has worked with a number of organisations to support language learning. She also supports several street schools in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her latest projects include building an orphanage and technical skills college in deprived areas. She believes passionately that education is the answer to eliminate poverty, inequality, and injustice, and has dedicated her career to the ideal of giving every child a world class education.
Today, GEMS World Academy Dubai is a towering story of what can be achieved in a school with exceptional leadership driven by the needs of children. This is a school that has been root and branch transformed by Dr Rana to begin and end with the interest of children. Every policy, every facility, every architectural journey, every part of the curriculum, every passion and every expertise of its exceptional teachers, has been refocused on the needs of each child individually.
Dr. Rana has shown what child-centred education must look like to be truly meaningful.
Every teacher and leader at GEMS World Academy is, today, deeply committed to children without question, distraction and to every part of their being. Those are the demands of being part of a school whose engines are focused on transforming the life chances of children so that they can achieve everything and more, and more, and more, of what they aspire to be. Their right to be…
And the impacts, in such a short space of time are being felt to extraordinary effect. Watching the way that children relate to her, and their, to all intents and purposes, new school, is so deeply moving. And girls and young women are foundational:
It is hard to put into words the impact of Dr Saima Rana in education. Our meetings and exchanges with Dr Rana leave us in no doubt of her overwhelming commitment to giving voice to girls and young women in her schools, and in all schools worldwide. And that commitment has been manifested in the courage of action, and achievement, at no small cost. In her role, and her choice to remain rooted to the coal face of education at her beloved GEMS World Academy, and its remarkable children, as well as in playing an absolutely centrifugal role in the leadership of GEMS Education globally, it is our view that Dr Saima Rana is well placed to make a profound difference in the world for young girls – and women.
We could not have imagined a more profoundly inspirational, hope-filled and courageous leader of the Top Schools Award-winning Best School for Girls and Young Women in the United Arab Emirates: the outstanding-plus GEMS World Academy Dubai.
Award Presentation
Best-School-for-Girls-and-Young-Women-GEMS-World-Academy-Winner-Certificate
The Top Schools Award for Best School for Girls and Young Women in the United Arab Emirates 2023 – 2024 will be presented to GEMS World Academy Dubai 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 in the Best School for Girls and Young Women category follow. Each of the following schools are recognised for their profound contribution to the education of girls and young women in UAE Education.
GEMS Our Own English High School Dubai
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/
Hartland International School
Web: https://www.hartlandinternational.com
KHDA: Very Good with Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/hartland-international-school/
Safa Community School
Web: https://www.safacommunityschool.com
KHDA: Very Good with Predominant Outstanding Features
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/safa-community-school
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/new-schools-in-uae/safa-community-school-dubai-al-barsha-south/
The British School Al Khubairat
Web: https://www.britishschool.sch.ae
ADEK: Outstanding / BSO Outstanding
Review: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/school-review/british-school-al-khubairat-abu-dhabi
Review: https://schoolscompared.com/curricula/a-levels/the-british-school-al-khubairat-al-mushrif/
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.
© SchoolsCompared.com. A WhichMedia Group publication. 2023 – 2024. All rights reserved.
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