UAE School holidays 2023-2026: UAE academic calendar for next three years approved by government

The UAE Cabinet has approved the UAE school holidays 2023-2026. The public and private UAE school calendar for the coming three academic years (2023/2024, 2024/2025, 2025/2026) has now been released, according to government news agency WAM.ae,

The decision established a clear and detailed timeline of school days and holidays. All schools must have a minimum of 182 school days. This is the same minimum number of days as in previous years for private schools, but fewer than the previous 188 days for public schools.

The dates have been announced on UAE government website U.ae.  The new academic calendar 2023-2026 has not yet been officially announced by the KHDA, the Dubai school regulator, so may be subject to change for individual schools. So far only the dates for schools that have terms starting in September have been announced.

UAE school holidays 2023-2025

UAE academic calendar 2023-2025 at a glance

2023-2024

Return from Summer Break: Monday 28 August 2023

Winter Break: 11 Dec 2023 – 1 Jan 2024

Spring Break: 25 March – 14 April 2024

2024-2025

Return from Summer Break: Monday 26 August 2024

Winter Break: 16 Dec 2024 – 5 Jan 2025

Spring Break: 24 March – 13 April 2025

2025-2026

Return from Summer Break: 25 August 2025

Winter Break: 15 Dec 2025 – 4 Jan 2026

Spring Break: 23 March – 12 April 2026

Changes to the Academic calendar 2023-2026

As in previous years, the start of the academic year is at the end of August. For the years 2023-2025 the first day back after summer is the Monday of the final week in August. This means that as the years go on the start of the new academic year gets progressively earlier, with the 2025 academic year kicking off as early as Monday the 25 August 2025.

Another change is that the Winter Break dates for 2024-2026 are later than usual, with schools breaking up on 16 December 2024 and staying off until 5 January 2025, whereas in previous years they would usually return the first working day after New Year’s Day, This is repeated in the next academic year too, with schools breaking up on 15 December 2025 and not returning until Monday 5 January 2026. The Winter Break is set to remain three weeks, as in previous years.

Spring Break is slated to be similar to the situation in previous years, kicking off towards the end of March and continuing into April. The calendar released so far sets Spring Break at three weeks. However, in previous years, private schools have been allowed flexibility to choose either two or three weeks for Spring Break, reserving one of those weeks to use elsewhere in the year as a half term. It is unclear whether this will also be the case from 2023-2026.

All official Dubai school calendars vary between individual schools. Each school must submit its proposed calendar dates to Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) for approval. We expect an announcement regarding the KHDA’s own academic calendar 2023-2026 soon. To find out how to see your own school’s individual academic calendar online see here. 

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