Guides · How Dubai schools work
Public or private school in Dubai: who can join a government school
Dubai has two kinds of school. Government schools teach in Arabic, charge UAE nationals no tuition fee and admit expatriate children only on the conditions the UAE government portal sets out. Private schools, inspected by KHDA, are where most children in Dubai study.
Does your family qualify?
- GradeGrade 2 to Grade 12; the portal names no KG or Grade 1 route for an expatriate child.
- EmployerA parent «should hold a job in a government, semi-government or a local entity».
- MarksThe child's marks «not below 85 per cent in Arabic language, English language and Mathematics».
- VisaA valid UAE residence visa for the child and the parent.
- PlaceRoom under the school's cap: expatriate pupils «should not exceed 20 per cent of the total capacity in each public school and each classroom».
- FeeAn AED 6,000 tuition fee.
«Expatriate» is the portal's word for the children who pay the fee; the four groups who pay no tuition fee are UAE nationals, UAE passport holders, GCC citizens and children of those granted nationality by decree. The place is «subject to approval, based on merit»; this list only shows the conditions. Portal page updated 14 August 2025, checked 10 October 2026. If any of these does not fit, read on: the rest of this page is about private schools, which this site's map, fees and KHDA ratings cover.
Who runs which school: the Ministry and KHDA
Two names come up on every admissions page, so here they are once.
UAE Ministry of Education (MoE)
Government (public) schools follow the Emirati national curriculum, which the UAE government portal describes as «approved and supervised completely by Ministry of Education». The Ministry also sets the admission age that private schools in Dubai follow; KHDA's guidelines then place a child in a year group. A family applies to a government school through the Ministry's e-service, linked from the portal.
Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)
KHDA, in this site's glossary: «The Dubai government authority that regulates private schools, inspects them and publishes their inspection reports and approved fees.» KHDA does not inspect government schools, and no published inspection ratings for them were found when this guide was checked. The schools on Dubai School Atlas come from KHDA's register, directory and reports, so the site covers private schools only.
Who can join a government school
The UAE government portal states the rule in two sentences. UAE nationals, holders of a UAE passport, GCC citizens and children of those granted nationality by decree pay no tuition fee: the portal's words are that they «get free education in government schools». The portal's word for the children who pay is expatriate students, «permitted to attend public schools on payment of 6,000 AED as tuition fees and subject to certain conditions».
The conditions, in the portal's own words, are listed under Does your family qualify? at the top of this guide. The portal adds a proviso: admission is «subject to approval, based on merit».
Two things the portal does not say, so this guide does not either: how marks from a school abroad are converted to the 85% threshold, and whether the AED 6,000 covers anything beyond tuition. Ask the Ministry's e-service or the school.
What this means in practice: the portal's conditions start at Grade 2, and it names no KG or Grade 1 route for an expatriate child. If neither parent works for a government, semi-government or local entity, the family does not meet the employer condition. The portal does not define «local entity»; the Ministry's e-service can say whether an employer counts. That is why the rest of this guide is about private schools.
Apply and read the current wording here:
Public and private side by side
Government and private schools in DubaiGovernment schools as the UAE government portal describes them · private schools as KHDA publishes them and this site reads them
| What | Government (public) school | Private school |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | The UAE government; applications through the Ministry of Education's e-service | The school's owner or operator |
| Inspection | No KHDA inspection; no published ratings found (10 October 2026) | KHDA regulates, inspects and publishes the report and rating (What KHDA ratings mean) |
| Enrolment | The four fee-free groups; expatriate children on the conditions above | Any child the school admits, placed by age (Which year group?) |
| Tuition | No tuition fee for nationals; an AED 6,000 tuition fee for expatriate children | KHDA-approved fee per school and year group (Fees by year group) |
| Language | «Arabic for all subjects», with English «taught as a second language» | The curriculum's language; English at 148 of 228 schools, English and Arabic at 31, Arabic at 12 (Types of school) |
| Curriculum | The national curriculum, «approved and supervised completely by Ministry of Education» | British, American, Indian CBSE, IB, Ministry of Education and others (Curricula; how to choose one) |
| Entry year | Grade 2 for an expatriate child | FS1 / Pre-KG at most schools (FS1 and FS2 in Dubai) |
| Year names | Grades (the portal names grades 2 to 12) | Year or Grade, by curriculum (Glossary) |
| Published where | u.ae and the Ministry's e-service | KHDA's register, directory and inspection reports, read on this site |
How this is worked out
The left column follows the UAE government portal; the right column uses this site's own pages, linked beside each figure. Nothing in the table compares quality.Where children in Dubai actually study
Private schools in Dubai in 2024–25, as KHDA's register and directory record the year:
- Schools open, 2024–25
- 237
- Pupils, 2024–25
- 387,381
- Register today
- 228The map counts schools open now, while the year's count includes schools that have since closed.
- KHDA's own release
- 227 schools and 387,441 studentsKHDA's news release for that year, a slightly different snapshot of the same register.
Of those pupils, 15,053 were at the 16 private schools that teach the Ministry of Education curriculum; the rest were in British, American, Indian, IB and other programmes.
For context: Emirati pupils were 8.7% of private-school enrolment in the 2023–24 reports, and 10.3% in 2019–20. Private schools in Dubai teach children of every nationality, UAE nationals included.
There is no recent official count of pupils in Dubai's government schools on a page this guide could check, so none is given.
A private school with the Ministry curriculum is not a public school
On this site, «MOE» beside a school's name means a private school that teaches the UAE Ministry of Education curriculum and is inspected by KHDA. None of them is a government school, and none of the government-school conditions above applies to them.
- Schools, 2024–25
- 16
- Pupils, 2024–25
- 15,053
- Median Year 5 (Grade 4) tuition, 2024–25
- AED 9,004
- Good or better
- 7 of 16, in their latest KHDA report
For a family that wants Arabic as the language of instruction or the Ministry curriculum, and does not meet the government-school conditions, these schools are the route, and they come with a KHDA report and an approved fee like any other private school. The Finder filters by curriculum.
Choosing a private school from here
If a government school is not open to your family, the choice is among private schools, and the order below saves the most time.
Year group first. Dubai places a child by age on a cut-off date, 31 December for September-start schools and 31 March for April-start schools, so a child from a US, Indian or other summer-cut-off school may be placed one year group away from what the family expects.
What the rating means. Private schools in Dubai are inspected on one framework. Each rating has a year, and most current ratings date from 2023–24; 26 of the 237 schools open in 2024–25 had not yet been inspected.
Fees by year group, then the whole route. The approved 2026–27 fee for every school at the year group your child will join, and the cost from that year to the final year.
Curriculum. British, IB, American or Indian CBSE: each ends with a different exam, and the choice is easier when it starts from that exam.
Where you will live. Schools by area, or within a short drive of a landmark.
Compare. Save schools from the map and compare two to five side by side.
Questions families ask
Can an expatriate child go to a government school in Dubai?
Yes, on the conditions the UAE government portal sets: Grades 2 to 12, a parent employed by a government, semi-government or local entity, marks of at least 85% in Arabic, English and mathematics, a valid residence visa for parent and child, room under the school's 20% cap on expatriate pupils, an AED 6,000 tuition fee, and a place granted on merit.
Are government schools in the UAE free?
For UAE nationals, UAE passport holders, GCC citizens and children of those granted nationality by decree, there is no tuition fee. Other residents who qualify pay an AED 6,000 tuition fee. Whether that sum covers anything beyond tuition is not stated on the portal; ask the Ministry's e-service or the school.
What language do government schools teach in?
Arabic. The UAE government portal states that the language of instruction «is Arabic for all subjects» and that English «is taught as a second language for basic grammar and comprehension». Private schools teach in the language of their curriculum: English at 148 of the 228 schools in the register, English and Arabic at 31, Arabic at 12.
Can my child start a government school in KG or Grade 1?
Not as an expatriate child, on what the portal publishes: its conditions admit a child «in grades 2 to 12» and name no KG or Grade 1 route. For Pre-KG, KG and Grade 1 (FS1 to Year 2 in a British school) the choice is among private schools, and most of them start at FS1 or Pre-KG.
Does KHDA rate government schools?
No. KHDA inspects and rates Dubai's private schools and publishes the reports. Government schools follow the national curriculum supervised by the Ministry of Education, and no published inspection ratings for them were found when this guide was checked on 10 October 2026.
Is a «MOE curriculum» school a public school?
No. On this site «MOE» means a private school teaching the UAE Ministry of Education curriculum, inspected by KHDA like every other private school; their numbers are in the Ministry curriculum section. The government-school conditions do not apply to them.
Where do I start if a government school is not an option?
With the year group, because Dubai places by age on a cut-off date; then the fee for that year group at every school; then what the KHDA rating means and how old it is. The Finder on the home page puts every private school on the map.
Sources
- UAE government portal (u.ae), Admission to UAE government schools (opens in a new tab)Who pays no tuition fee, the AED 6,000 fee, the conditions and the merit proviso for an expatriate child, the language of instruction, and the link to the Ministry of Education's admission e-service. u.ae marks the page «Text reviewed by Ministry of Education»; page updated 14 August 2025; checked 10 October 2026.
- KHDA, Dubai's Private Schools Open Data and Education Directory (opens in a new tab)School and pupil counts for 2024–25, the register today, the language of instruction and the curriculum per school, as read on this site's statistics pages.
- KHDA, news release on 2024–25 enrolment (opens in a new tab)Page updated 17 October 2025. 227 private schools and 387,441 students in 2024–25.
- KHDA inspection reports, 2023–24 and earlierThe share of Emirati pupils and the ratings of Ministry-curriculum private schools, as summarised on this site's state-of-the-sector report.
Every sentence in quotation marks on this page was checked word for word against its document on 10 October 2026.