Pricey school fees and high teacher turnover are driving a spike in applications from UAE pupils to private schools in the UK, a British education consultancy has said.
Parents based in the UAE are considering UK boarding schools over local private schools as economic insecurities price them out of the market, said Sara Sparling of Sue Anderson Consultants (SAC), a firm that works with overseas families to place pupils in UK schools.
“The schools are good [in the UAE] but they get full. There is the issue of waiting lists. And the prices definitely play a role,” she said speaking on the sidelines of an education event in Dubai.
“It seems that every September there is a flurry of fees rising by 30 percent. That is a huge hike for parents, particularly if they have more than one child in the school.”
Fees at a number of top-tier UAE day schools are more expensive than those at all-inclusive British boarding schools, she added.
“Another issue is transient teaching staff. We’ve spoken to a number of families whose children have had between five and seven teachers for one subject in GCSE over a two-year programme. It is awful because the child is not getting the best chance.”
SAC placed nearly 70 children from UAE-based families in UK schools last year, a 20 percent increase on the previous year’s placements, and anticipates a further increase this year.
The firm saw a surge in applications in the wake of the first set of results from Dubai Schools Inspections Bureau, which saw more than a third of private schools in the emirate graded as ‘acceptable’ or ‘unsatisfactory’.
The lack of special needs provision in the UAE has also pushed parents to consider overseas schools, Sparling said.
“We’re seeing a lot of children with special needs who aren’t being supported here. We saw an increase [last year], and we also saw an increase in enquiries from local families.”
The firm’s Middle East segment has, for the first time, outstripped placements from families in the British Forces.
According to the latest figures from the Independent Schools Council, a body that represents 1,256 private schools across the UK, there has been a two percent rise in the number of pupils that have parents based in the Middle East.
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