Any future rise in private school fees in Dubai will now be tied to a school’s most recent inspection result, even if that inspection happened up to two years ago, as the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) brings back its quality assurance visits this academic year.
During a media majlis on Thursday, the regulator said schools won’t necessarily go through the same type of inspection every year anymore. Instead, the approach is shifting toward targeted visits guided by data and by areas where a school has room to improve.
This shift comes as Dubai’s private schools gear up for the next round of quality assurance inspections, with KHDA saying it wants inspections to feel more meaningful for schools while making sure its resources go where they can actually make a difference.
“No school was allowed to increase school fees this year. This was well received, including by investors, because they understood the rationale behind the decision,” said Aisha Miran, Director General of KHDA, adding that while schools had felt some pressure from rising operating costs, they were able to absorb it.
For parents, how fees play out will come down to a school’s latest inspection outcome. KHDA said it plans to lean on existing data about schools rather than insisting every single school go through a fresh inspection before its fee status can be worked out.
Schools could have different inspection years
This new approach also grew out of feedback from stakeholders, including teachers, who flagged concerns about how often inspections happen and how much time schools actually get to put changes into place.
“We met with different stakeholders, and one of the key points raised by teachers was the need to reduce the frequency of inspections. Teachers often do not have sufficient time to implement changes quickly,” Miran said.
The regulator has run inspections every single year for the past 17 years, but says the goal now is to focus on improvements that can genuinely move the needle on a school’s overall quality.
Going forward, there will be two types of quality assurance inspections, QA1 and QA2. A QA2 inspection won’t change a school’s overall rating. Instead, it will zero in on specific areas where KHDA feels targeted support could help.
Schools won’t know ahead of time whether they’re up for a QA1 or a QA2 inspection. That call will come down to KHDA’s data and its own assessment of where an inspection would do the most good.
“We want to use our resources most beneficially and effectively,” Miran added.
Under this new model, some schools could end up with a rating from the current academic year, while others might still be carrying a rating from an inspection that happened two years earlier.
KHDA said it would “visit schools where there was potential for measurable improvement, particularly where progress in specific areas could eventually affect the school’s overall rating.”
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The fee increase decision will depend on the latest rating
The inspection cycle matters a lot to parents because fee increases are directly linked to inspection outcomes.
The regulator made clear that whatever the most recent inspection result is, that’s what gets used when deciding if a school can raise its fees. In practice, this means the applicable result could be from this academic year or from one several years back.
“We will target the inspection specifically at areas that can eventually help the school improve its rating. As a result, some schools will have ratings from this year, while others may have ratings from two years ago,” KHDA said.
The regulator also pointed out that the actual scope for fee increases isn’t known yet. The Education Cost Index (ECI), which feeds into how much schools might be allowed to raise fees, usually isn’t calculated until April.
So parents will need to wait until then for any real clarity on whether fee hikes will be permitted.
“However, we still do not know whether there will be an increase in school fees, as the Education Cost Index (ECI) is usually not calculated until April,” KHDA said.
Even as the inspection model becomes more targeted overall, QA1 inspections will still carry significant weight in certain cases.
“However, any school entering its third year of operation will undergo a QA1 inspection, as it is still considered a new school.”