The Schools Report brings you the SchoolsCompared.com official Weekly Briefing on the Hottest News in Education.
Every Friday we bring you the latest stories in education in the UAE and around the world in the last 7 days. Here’s what’s been happening this week…
This Week in Education. UAE Education News. First. Every Friday. Only from SchoolsCompared.com.
SchoolsCompared Top Schools Awards 2023 announced. Nominations to open this September, with an exclusive new award revealed
WhichMedia, publishers of SchoolsCompared, EdStaticaTM and WhichSchoolAdvisor.com have today confirmed the launch and timeline for The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Awards 2023-24. Established in 2016, The Top Schools Awards have established themselves as the definitive awards for schools, leaders, teachers and educationalists in the region.
The 2023-2024 Awards will be the fourth Top Schools Awards held in the UAE.
The following timeline for The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 has been released by Which Media:
15th September: Awards, and criteria published
1st October 2023: Nominations open
10th October 2023: 12-week countdown begins to closing date for receipt of all submissions by 10th January 2023
Awards to be held March 2023
It has been announced today that The Top Schools Awards 2023 – 2024 will feature at least one new awards category. The first of these is being announced exclusively today:
“The SchoolsCompared.com Top Schools Award 2023 – 2024 for the Most Outstanding School in the UAE for Bursaries, Scholarships and care for Parents and Families.”
Oxbridge ‘brain drain’ as top students are poached by US universities instead
If Oxbridge discourages applications from independent schools it could result in a “brain drain” to US universities, said Independent Schools Council (ISC) chair Barnaby Lenon.
The number of UK teenagers heading to US universities has more than doubled in the past decade, and numbers are expected to rise if the UK’s top institutions overlook independent school leavers in favour of state-educated applicants.
Recent figures from the ISC Census reveal that the percentage of independently educated students going to Oxbridge has fallen from 6.5% in 2016 to 4.3% last year.
Meanwhile the number of British students going to US universities has shot up by more than 100%, with only 411 US-bound in 2012, compared to 842 this year.
This is a trend that has been mirrored in the UAE. Dubai College, which has historically been one of the UAE’s most successful schools at placing students in Oxbridge, saw the number of its pupils heading to the US for university double from 12% to 24% between 2017 and 2020, while those going to the UK dipped from 75% to 60%.
Oxbridge dons such as Cambridge vice-chancellor Stephen Toope have warned UK private schools that the ‘premium’ attached to independent schooling is in decline and private schools must accept that they will place fewer students at Oxbridge, however it is unclear how this applies to students applying to Oxbridge from the UAE.
Although expat students from the UAE are almost certain to have been educated at a private school, the UAE school system is very different from the UK. Michael Lambert, Headmaster of Dubai College, said in an interview with SchoolsCompared:
“There’s a degree of ambiguity as to where overseas international school students sit, because they’re certainly not state-educated in the UK. When we’ve written to Oxford and Cambridge, they’ve told us that we’re just classified as ‘overseas’, but what does that mean? Does that count for or against the students that are overseas? It’s not clear.”
Oxford and Cambridge now consider applicants’ social background when giving offers to try to create a better mix of students and pinpoint those with potential from disadvantaged schools.
But Barnaby Lenon told The Mail on Sunday the changes mean private school pupils are no longer made to feel valued by Oxbridge:
“It’s a threat to the world-class status of Oxford and Cambridge and it’s also damaging to the country because a good proportion of the brightest children will never come back. They will fall in love with an American, get a good job in America and stay there.”
Mr Lenon said:
“Independent schools and grammar schools which get the best results are all being approached by universities from America and being offered, in many cases, big bursaries and scholarships. So there is a brain drain developing.”
UAE teachers have also noticed a rise in the number of strong UAE students being approached by US universities and tempted with scholarship offers. At the same time, rising costs mean top students’ families are now being priced out of traditional destinations such as the UK and are beginning to consider more diverse university options than ever before, with increasing numbers heading to universities with courses delivered in English at European countries such as Germany, The Netherlands and Spain.
Mr Lenon adds:
“Oxford and Cambridge don’t often come to independent schools and say ‘We want you to increase the number of applicants to a college or university’, but we do get a steady stream of people coming from the top universities in the US and saying, ‘We want your best applicants.’”
“Not only are they not discriminating, but they are also positively encouraging in a way that British universities are not.”
Schools told to be more “vegan inclusive”
Any schools claiming to value ‘Inclusion’ must also consider vegan inclusivity, according to The Vegan Society, which has announced what it says is the world’s first ever vegan-inclusive education conference this October.
The UK-based event aims to help vegan school pupils and their parents as well as educators who want to be vegan inclusive, the society says.
The event follows controversy surrounding the promotion of vegetarian and vegan food over carnivorous offerings in school canteens. In February, a UK primary school hit international headlines when it announced its hot meals would now all be vegan.
At the conference, members of the Vegan Society’s Educational Network (EN) – a voluntary group of vegan professionals – will address challenges to vegan-inclusive education, describe their experiences as educators, parents and guardians and those of children.
They will look at how equality and inclusiveness principles can be applied to vegans.
The charity is also welcoming guest speakers from the education sector to submit presentations ahead of the conference, at the Training and Conference Centre in Speke, Liverpool, on 1 October 2022.
Examples of topics covered include: how traditional resources can be improved to promote animal compassion, inclusiveness around extra-curricular activities and school trips, and the provision of vegan food and plant milks.
Emirates Literature Foundation’s search for new young writers is on
The Emirates Literature Foundation’s search for the nation’s best young story writers has begun, with the launch of its annual creative writing competition for students, the Story Writing Competition.
A fixture on the academic calendar, the competition accepts entries in Arabic and in English from full-time students in schools, colleges, and universities in the UAE. It is divided into age-specific categories: 11 and under, 12-14, 15-17 and 18-25. The winners will be honoured in an awards ceremony held during the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in 2023, and the winning entries will be published in an anthology.
The competition is very popular, with more than 3,700 stories being entered last year. This year the theme for the competition is ‘Old Friends’. The deadline for submissions is 24th October 2022.
Isobel Abulhoul, CEO and Trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation said, “Creative writing is such an important skill, for students, and for life. The competition themes are designed to ignite the students’ curiosity and allow their imaginations to explore an infinite variety of ideas. ‘Old Friends’ as well as actual friends, can refer to a favourite book or character, a beloved pet, a cuddly toy: the list is endless. I can’t wait to see our young storytellers’ happy and creative interpretations of the theme.”
More information about the theme, deadlines and submission guidelines, are available on
https://www.elfdubai.org/en/story-writing-competition.
UAE schools weigh up bus fee increases as fuel prices rise
Headteachers in Dubai and Sharjah are weighing up whether to pass on higher transport costs to parents as the price of petrol rises.
Several schools told The National they have already made the decision to raise the monthly charge for pupils who get collected on morning shuttle runs.
Others said they were weighing up whether they could take the hit instead.
In line with rising global oil prices, drivers in the UAE have been paying more for fuel in the past few months, with a 10 per cent rise in March and a 16 per cent increase in April.
On Tuesday, the government set the price of diesel, Special and Super at more than Dh4 ($1) per litre for June. The UAE ended what was in effect a subsidy on oil prices in 2015 to promote sustainability and for fiscal reasons.
UAE schools weigh up bus fee increases as fuel prices rise (thenationalnews.com)
View from a parent: “Why I chose the IB curriculum for my children”
The IB is one of the fastest growing curricula in the UAE and the world. But what is this relatively new curricula all about, and why is it capturing people’s imaginations now? We spoke to one parent about why she’s chosen it for her children and the impact it has:
“When my two children, Frederik and Sofie, started school, it was important to me to find a place where their education would focus on individual learning in a positive and caring way”
“Their wellbeing was just as much a focus as their education.”
“It was also important to me that my children had the opportunity to collaborate and stay physically active throughout the day, especially at the elementary level.”
KHDA School Fees Factsheets push Dubai schools to be more transparent about costs
Parents should now have access to all fee-related information for their children’s school in Dubai through the newly published School Fees Fact Sheets.
Introduced by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), the School Fees Fact Sheet is a one-page reference that includes all mandatory and optional fees that Dubai private schools may charge during an academic year.
The Fact Sheet was introduced earlier this year to coincide with the beginning of the academic year for schools offering the Indian and Pakistani curriculums. The Fact Sheets ae now available for all private schools in Dubai. The document lists all approved fees and costs, such as transportation, extra-curricular activities, school trips and books, to name a few.
The School Fees Fact Sheet will also be included in the annual Parent-School Contract. More than 180 schools have been included in the new roll-out of the School Fees Fact Sheet Dr. Abdulla Al Karam, Director General of Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), said:
“The School Fees Fact Sheet will be now available every academic year for all private schools in Dubai. The Fact Sheet not only gives parents accurate and up-to-date information on all the fees they could be expected to pay, it also enables parents and schools to better focus on children’s learning. We appreciate the support of Dubai school leaders in making the School Fees Fact Sheet accessible to their parent communities.”
Earlier this year, the School Fees Fact Sheet was rolled out to 81,000 students across 35 schools in Dubai. Schools starting their academic year in September 2022 will get access to the service from this week and parents should receive an SMS with the link to their school’s Fact Sheet.
The School Fees Fact Sheet will also be publicly viewable on KHDA’s website (
https://web.khda.gov.ae/en/Education-Directory/Schools) giving parents an option to compare schools.
Could this be the beginning of free Tier 1 international education for all in the UAE? Bloom Education, Aldar Education and Taaleem seal deal to operate government schools in ground-breaking new UAE education model
Top private-school operators have agreed to operate a range of government schools as part of the groundbreaking new Ajyal Schools model, launched by the Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE), which aims to dramatically elevate the quality of public education in Dubai.
Three key private-school operators with significant experience in running top tier schools in the region have come on board: Bloom Education, Aldar Education and Taaleem. Bloom already operates a number of British- curriculum, American-curriculum and IB-curriculum schools in the UAE, including Bloom World Academy, a progressive, family-first IB school that will launch in August 2022 with a range of innovative policies, including flexible starting times. Aldar Education is also highly experienced in operating high-quality, forward-looking private schools in Abu Dhabi and, ever since opening its first school, The Pearl Academy, in 2007, Aldar Academies has grown into a leading provider of private education with over 6,500 students across a network of seven Academies.
As part of the new model the private operators will oversee the day-to-day running of a first phase of ten public schools, with responsibility for hiring teachers, delivering curriculum and everyday operations, while the government will provide the funding. Fees will remain free of charge for the students attending these public schools.
One of the most dramatic changes that students are likely to notice is the fact that the new model will combine the UAE national curriculum with international curricula, which will be delivered in English. The national curricula will include the Arabic language, Islamic education, moral education and social studies, and will be under the direct supervision of the Emirates Schools Establishment. Meanwhile, subjects such as maths, science and more will follow international curricula – which in the first phase will be the American curriculum – and will be delivered in English, by newly hired teachers.
The model will be applied to all students from Grades I to IV, in 10 different schools. The aim is to then to roll it out to 28 different schools within three years.
Although this model of new and improved, free education delivered by experienced and progressive private providers currently only applies in public schools, which essentially cater to Emiratis only, it does raise the question of whether free, high-quality education for students of all nationalities could ever be a possibility in Dubai? Considering the big-picture thinking that the UAE government specialises in, nothing seems impossible.
10 Study Apps top UAE students swear by
You know those lucky people who ace every single exam with seemingly no effort? We’ve spoken to them – and the truth is, they do revise. They just do it as efficiently and effectively as possible – which often means harnessing the power of technology to help. Your teachers should be able to point you to websites with subject-specific curriculum information and revision aids, but here some of the UAE’s top-performing students for their tips for apps and websites to help with the revision process.
Tabitha Barda’s The School Report © SchoolsCompared.com. 2022. All rights reserved.
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