KHDA school ratings explained for parents

If you are choosing a school in Dubai, the KHDA rating is usually the first quality signal you will meet. It is genuinely useful, but only if you know what it measures, when the school was last inspected, and what the words actually mean. This guide covers all three, using official published figures.

Who inspects Dubai schools

Private schools in Dubai are regulated by the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA). School inspections have historically been carried out by its Dubai Schools Inspection Bureau (DSIB), and quality assurance now sits with KHDA’s Education Quality Assurance and Compliance Agency. Inspectors spend several days in a school, sit in lessons, review work and data, and talk to students, teachers and parents. In the 2023-24 cycle alone, inspectors made 19,782 classroom visits across the city.

The six rating levels

Schools are judged against the UAE School Inspection Framework and given one of six overall ratings:

In that 2023-24 cycle, 209 private schools were inspected and 81% of students attended a school rated Good or better, up from 77% the year before. “Good” is the level KHDA describes as the expected standard, so it is a solid result, and anything above it puts the school in roughly the top third of the city.

Check the date: most ratings are from 2023-24

This is the detail most parents miss. KHDA paused routine full inspections for both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 school years. Established schools received targeted quality-assurance visits and had to run external benchmark assessments, but they did not get new overall ratings. In 2024-25 only four newly opened schools received first ratings (Citizens School and Bloom World Academy were rated Good, Durham School Dubai and Dubai Schools Nad Al Sheba were rated Acceptable).

So when you read a school’s rating today, it almost certainly reflects an inspection from 2023-24 or earlier. A lot can change in a school in three years, in either direction. Full inspections resume in 2026-27, and with a new twist: schools will get no more than 24 hours’ notice before inspectors arrive, which is designed to show schools as they really are day to day.

How to use ratings well

• Read past the headline grade. A school can be Good overall while its early years provision is Very Good and its secondary maths is Acceptable. The section that matters is the one covering your child’s age and subjects.
• Look at the trajectory. A school that moved from Acceptable to Good is often a better bet than one that has sat still at Good for a decade. In 2023-24, 26 schools improved their rating and only 3 declined.
• Weigh rating against fees. Outstanding schools are usually the most expensive, but plenty of Good and Very Good schools deliver strong outcomes at half the fee. Our Dubai school fees guide puts real numbers on this.
• Remember what a rating cannot tell you. Commute time, a child’s friendships, the fit with a particular teacher: none of it is inspected. Visit the school.

Which British schools are rated Outstanding?

Of the 23 Outstanding schools in Dubai, more than two-thirds follow the British curriculum or a British-IB hybrid. The UK-curriculum names on the list include Dubai College, Jumeirah College, both Jumeirah English Speaking School campuses (Al Safa and Arabian Ranches), Kings’ School Dubai and Kings’ School Al Barsha, Dubai English Speaking School and College, GEMS Jumeirah Primary School, Horizon English School, Safa Community School, Victory Heights Primary School, and both Dubai British School campuses (Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Park). Repton School, GEMS Wellington International, Nord Anglia International and Deira International School hold the rating with UK-IB hybrid programmes.