Educators and parents need to pay special attention because there might be a slight increase in the tuition of private schools in Dubai next academic year. This past Friday the Knowledge and Human Development Authority approved an Education Fee Cost Index (ECI) of 2.35% for Dubai private for-profit schools for the 2025-2026 academic slot.
This is after a comprehensive audit review of the financial documents of privately owned schools in Dubai conducted with Digital Dubai Authority. Operational costs like the growing expenses of maintaining salaries, utilities, and teaching materials contributes towards the schools ability to realize the ECI during the academic year. Subsequently, this provides schools with the opportunity to adjust their fees in a transparent manner.
This sort of regulated increase assists in correcting the balance so that schools offer quality services while ensuring that parents are not subjected to sudden unpredictable steep increases in fees. Not all schools will however overshoot the mark and be able to utilize the full increase. Schools that do not meet the KHDA performance metrics will be bound to this cap. Top rated schools are likely to adjust a little bit more.
KHDA in this case has provided a balanced approach ensuring ease for these families in terms of the outlay costs and the sustainability and operational viability of the private institution. This enables competition in developing markets.
The mark of 200 private schools in Dubai servicing various segments of the population dynamically portrays the competitive education sector in the emirate while simultaneously setting a bar towards the sustainable growth goal for the region’s changing education system.