Dubai KHDA announces pause on some school inspections for 2025-26
The private schools under Dubai will not be getting any inspections in the 2025-26 academic year. This was made clear by Dubai's KHDA (Knowledge and Human Development Authority) on Friday, May 16.
The KHDA then stated “The decision – part of an evolving approach to supporting quality education in the emirate – applies to all private schools, except for those in their third year of operation, that will be subject to a full inspection.”
“It (the KHDA) hopes to maintain the level of educational services being offered to school communities, thus, enhancing the overall quality of schooling within Dubai, through visits tailored to specific standards of educational performance and development,” KHDA added.
Further elaborating on the issur, Fatma Ibrahim Belrehif, CEO of the Education Quality Assurance and Compliance Agency at KHDA followed up with: “Private schools in Dubai have shown a remarkable spirit of resilience, innovation and an unrelenting commitment to students’ learning and wellbeing."
She stated: “The pause in inspections for the upcoming year will provide us with an opportunity to collaborate and deliberate on how we define and support quality in education. Mapping out and sustaining engagement with schools will make it possible to achieve the educational goals set for every child in Dubai.”
Self-evaluation forms
All schools are still expected to conduct external benchmark assessments to evaluate and report on students’ academic profrss. Schools shall also issue regular updates relayed through their self-evaluation forms (SEF).
As per the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB), the SEFs describe the improvement plan outlined as a response broken down to answering parts of provided questions on special educational needs, early years’ education, innovation, the UAE National Agenda, social studies, and learners who speak English as an additional language (EAL).
Every school is obliged to submit the KHDA self-evaluation online form no less than fourteen (14) days) prior to the scheduled inspection.
On the other hand, Dubai's KHDA last week allowed private schools in the emirate to increase their tuition fees for the next academic year based on an approved Education Cost Index (ECI) of 2.35 percent.
For-profit schools in Dubai are allowed to raise their fees depending on the individual school grade given by the Dubai School Inspection Bureau (DSIB) and the ECI, which is calculated periodically. Any fee increase may only be applied to one specific year and not to subsequent academic years.
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