Nine new schools expected in Abu Dhabi this year

Nine new private schools are expected to open this academic year, adding about 17,326 student seats across the emirate.

ABU DHABI // Nine private schools are expected to open this academic year, adding about 17,326 student places across the emirate.

Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) said four schools would offer the British curriculum, three would teach the American curriculum, another the Indian curriculum and one the Ministry of Education curriculum.

The emirate is home to 186 private schools for about 236,000 students, according to Adec, the emirate’s education regulator.

Emiratis make up about 24 per cent of the private school student population.

There were 2,600 seats added this academic year “as an expansion plan of existing schools teaching Indian curriculum”, Adec said on its website.

In addition to the nine new schools, Adec said there were about 19 schools under construction that were “expected to operate during the two coming academic years, adding more than 30,000 seats in the market”.

The private school student population in the emirate is projected to continue growing at a rate of about 5 per cent per year, reaching about 283,798 pupils by 2020-2021, according to the latest figures publicly available on Adec’s website.

Adec did not respond to requests for more information about the new schools’ names, locations and tuition schedules.