Tuesday 19 March 2024 (UAE)

KHDA Dubai

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KHDA - Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai

The KHDA in Dubai (acronym meaning Knowledge and Human Development Authority) is the educational regulatory authority for Dubai schools, colleges, and universities. From 2009, the DISB, a subsidiary division of the KHDA, started issuing school ratings.

The KHDA is a Dubai government authority that oversees education in the emirate of Dubai (including Hatta), both private and public, having taken over the role from the Dubai Education Council (DEC) in 2007. Other emirates have their own education authorities, or come under the authority of the federal UAE Ministry of Education (MOE). The KHDA remit is to develop both the education and human resource sectors in Dubai. Licensing of all educational institutes in Dubai (including those located in Free Zones in Dubai) is governed by the KHDA.

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[Update needed] KHDA school ratings and inspections

KHDA school ratings - page with more detailed information.

KHDA reports 2012 released for 2011-2012 on 27 February 2011 for Indian and Pakistan schools, and 08 May 2012 for other schools.

From October to December 2008, the Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB), the inspections division of the KHDA, conducted the first Dubai school inspections. It is expected that the DISB will conduct regular inspections in future (annually?). The DISB inspections give each school one of 4 ratings: outstanding, good, acceptable or unsatisfactory. Schools can increase their fees by varying amounts depending on the rating (a good rating means a higher fees increase). The results of the first inspections were released on 02 April 2009, and further results were released on 16 May 2009. A summary is (add your comments to the KHDA school inspection topic):

Date and number of schools rated unsatisfactory    acceptable            good           outstanding          total       
Rating 10 May 2010 21 95 66 5 187
Rating 17 February 2010² 5 11 7 0 23
Rating 16 May 2009¹ 14 63 41 0 118
Rating 02 April 2009 6 34 25 4 69
  1. Mostly western and Arabic curriculum schools. Indian, Iranian, and Pakistani schools not included.
  2. Indian (20) and Pakistani (3) curriculum schools only.

KHDA International Student Assessments

The Program for International Student Assessments (PISA) is an OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) program held every 3 years that ranks students from different countries based on reading and mathematics skills. About 6500 students from 130 schools in Dubai will participate for the first time from 26 April to 14 May 2009, arranged by the KHDA. In a geographical slip-up, the KHDA issued a press release on 14 April 2009 announcing that Dubai, rather than the UAE, was one of the participating countries. Oops.

[Update] KHDA IB partnership

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KHDA acronyms and meanings

Headings and updates needed

KHDA contact numbers and timings

Last update Friday 22-Mar-2019
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www.dubaifaqs.com/khda.php (PDF and print version).

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