Class action

zoom

zoom

Despite a glut of branded schools, literacy rates across the Gulf still fall short of the minimum 95 percent rate mandated by the United Nations.

GEMS is the biggest private provider of K12 education in the world, and it has no plans to stop there. Dino Varkey, senior director of business operations at the group, talks fees, future plans and setting up shop in Saudi.

If Rip van Winkle awoke from a hundred-year slumber in the Gulf, the frenetic pace of change here would send him reeling.

Between the gold-plated malls and glitzy skyscrapers, there’d be no doubt he and the region had teleported into the 21st century. Unless, of course, he woke up in a local school. Then he could be forgiven for thinking he’d just finished a nap.

Education in the Gulf isn’t quite frozen in time, but its slow-burn revolution has been less outpaced and more lapped by the changes seen in other sectors. Despite the glut of branded schools that have set up shop here, education has largely cobwebbed.

Literacy rates across the region still fall short of the minimum 95 percent rate set for developing nations by the UN. Results from the global TIMSS exam in 2007 showed school kids in Qatar ranked alongside those in Ghana and Yemen as the poorest at maths and science.

When pitted against the 2003 results, their peers in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are actually getting worse. Combined, this sketches a picture of a new generation of job seekers utterly unequipped for the brave new world that awaits them.
 
But times are changing. The Gulf has finally cottoned on to the idea that if it is to have any chance of manning its future boardrooms, it needs a sea change in its classrooms. Saudi, Qatar and the UAE have all nailed their colours to the mast and pledged a radical shakeout of education.

Courtesy of their oil wealth, they have the means to make it happen. What they don’t have is the expertise.
Step forward Dino Varkey. The son of GEMS founder Sunny Varkey, and heir apparent to the multimillion-dollar private education outfit, he has plans for those petrodollars.
 
“The opportunity is here,” he says, leaning forward in his chair. “Look at the underlying demographic; the MENASA region has the youngest population under the age of 20 worldwide, the second-fastest growing population from a school perspective. It’s the sheer quantity of schools required here.
 
“The GCC needs to create 100 million jobs, and how will that happen? By reforming the education space.”

There’s no doubt that for Dubai-based GEMS - or Global Education Management Systems, to give its full name - this adds up to an Aladdin’s Cave of opportunities.

It has little in the way of competition. By sheer scale it has the private sector nailed, owning 26 schools in the UAE alone, where a third of school kids are in private education.

Ask Varkey, and the well-oiled stats trip off his tongue. GEMS has 100,000 students in 100 schools across 11 countries, learning one of three curriculum, taught by 6,500 education professionals from 50 different nationalities. The figures are enough to make your head swim, and the group is still growing.

“In order, we’re looking to expand in India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey and Qatar,” Varkey says. “In India, we’re looking to grow to a hundred schools in the next five years [GEMS currently runs five schools]. From a MENA perspective, we will be looking at probably another hundred schools, with the balance in Saudi and Egypt just because of the macro factors. And we’re going to continue investing in the UAE, specifically in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah.”

If that weren’t enough, bringing up the rear is a plan for 20 schools in the US.

“We’re bullish,” Varkey shrugs.

The GEMS edge is that, in style, the chain mimics an airline. School fees range from squeezed, ‘no frills’ economy prices – the $953-a-year classes held in Fujairah, for example - to premium class, and everything in-between.
 
“Whatever the price point or curriculum, we can deliver quality education,” Varkey says. “We can customise anything, any curriculum. When we go to a country, we just need to know where the people are - then we can find the model that fits.”

GEMS has also been smart enough to shift into consulting, offering up its services to whip rival schools into shape. (“We’re like a Hilton or a Hyatt in the education space,” says Varkey, a touch ambitiously.) This hasn’t gone unnoticed by local governments, fretting over the state of the public system, helping the chain snap up 25 state schools in Abu Dhabi and a pair of private schools in Qatar. At a time when private education is being groomed as the saviour of the Gulf’s crumbling public sector, such deals could blow the education market wide open and fast track its improvement.

“To the credit of the government, they’ve recognised the situation,” Varkey says, weighing his words carefully. “In more developed markets, nothing happens in education because any good idea becomes politicised. Those same constraints don’t exist here, so they have the opportunity to make changes very quickly.”

What Varkey is edging round, is the fact that the Gulf - not having the trifling issue of ‘one person, one vote’ to contend with – has few political roadblocks to reform. But that doesn’t mean the path runs smooth.

This newfound interest in education is coming at a price for private schools, which are finding themselves increasingly under a spotlight with everything from their syllabus to their fees dictated by the state. In Dubai, for example, fee hikes are now linked to a school’s performance against a number of state-picked indicators. Along with maths and science, schools are ranked on Islamic studies classes, and their pupils’ “respect and understanding of Islam”. From history of light-touch regulation, it’s a tough pill to swallow.

Print | Email | Discuss this article

| Share |

READERS' COMMENTS

Mindscape
Posted by Amira Smith, Dubai, UAE on Tuesday 22 September 2009 at 14:21 UAE time


Ummm - what? That didn't actually make any sense. Are you berating him for not contributing to Dubai Cares (in which case, how do you know that he doesn't? Have you asked them?) or are you commending him for encouraging a sense of community and charity among GEMS schoolchildren?

PETER OH PETER!
Posted by Mindscape, Dubai, India on Monday 21 September 2009 at 15:12 UAE time


And where are you going to debit Mr Varkey's contribution to the dubai cares initiative when the same week almost all GEMS students tiny tots included were seen selling wads of charity coupons handed to them by GEMS. Good business sense yeah!

Jealousy talking
Posted by Peter, Dubai, UAE on Friday 18 September 2009 at 12:32 UAE time


How was sunny varkey born with a silver spoon in his mouth? His parents ran one school in Dubai when he was born - every thing else GEMS is, he built. Credit where credit is due - he's an good entrepreneur. And his firm has been running for 50 years - that's a pretty good track record. (For the record - primary and secondary private education has been pretty untouched by the recession - that stats in the US and UK support it. Universities are another story though...)

What action
Posted by Mindscape, Dubai, India on Friday 18 September 2009 at 06:41 UAE time


Like father like son. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, I ain't impressed with this slick talk. Every business has its own cycle and i have seen the mighty fall here, recession proof industry. Ride your luck cowboy till it lasts.

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Arabian Business would like to point out that only comments relevant to the story will be published. Any containing personal insults or inappropriate language will not be approved.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Enter the words above *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM