Inside UAE’s most expensive school, from Dh200,000 fees to esports classrooms

Gems School of Research and Innovation will open in August with an NBA-spec basketball court, VR lessons and an immersive research centre

A rendering of Gems School of Research and Innovation, which aims to cater to 'super-premium' demand in Dubai. Photo: Gems Education

Helipads, Olympic-level facilities and an esports centre – a new Dubai school aims to be first in its class when it opens in August.

Fees at Gems School of Research and Innovation will range from Dh116,000 ($31,500) for pupils in foundation stage one to Dh206,000 ($56,000) in year 12.

Built with an investment of $100 million (Dh367 million), the campus in Dubai Sports City will feature an elevated football field that doubles as a helipad, a 600-seat auditorium, an Olympic-size swimming pool and an NBA-spec basketball court.

It will also include disruption labs to develop entrepreneurial skills, specialist primary spaces for technology, design, sports and the arts, alongside tech hubs and an immersive research centre.

In its first year, the school will accept pupils from foundation stage one to year six, with a discount of 20 per cent on tuition fees for founding families.

Students will engage with artificial intelligence, robotics, esports, and game design from an early age while exploring specialist languages, arts, sports, engineering and business, Gems Education outlined.

Maryssa O’Connor, senior vice president of education at Gems Education, told The National how tech will be at the centre of learning for its pupils. Partnerships with tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, HP and Play Tech Centre will provide real-world learning opportunities to pupils.

Pupils will also have access to the Gems for Life Programme, which will help them connect with schools worldwide, participate in Unesco conferences, become global ambassadors and gain access to prestigious universities and top-tier employers.

During the early years, the pupils will be introduced to a broader curriculum with immersive learning using virtual reality.

Ms O'Connor explained this will benefit language development, giving children an opportunity to learn French and Spanish while transporting them to specific parts of those countries. "This will really give them the cultural awareness of why language is so important," she added.

Baz Nijjar, vice president of Education Technology and Digital Innovation, added that they are "reimagining how technology can be integrated into the curriculum" to enhance learning outcomes.

The "school's ecosystem" will engage teachers, parents and pupils in the learning journey, Ms O’Connor said. She added that it will help educators "support or change the course of their learning path" to ensure children achieve "the best in every subject".

Extended school timings

The school will offer flexible pick-up and drop-off times. Potentially, pupils could be engaged at the school from 6.30am to 5.30pm and also be at school on Saturday mornings.

“This will be a long working week for children, there'll be lots of opportunities for them to engage in all these wonderful facilities and with the expert teaching and coaching,” said Ms O’Connor.

Teacher recruitment

"Each [teacher] has been carefully recruited from the UK and across the world to inspire, guide and challenge our students,” highlighted Sunny Varkey, chairman and founder of Gems Education and the Varkey Foundation.

This school will also function as a research hub, encouraging research-minded teachers to team up with "universities and research organisations such as the OECD and other global centres".

Mr Varkey said: “We expect our teachers to be publishing this research, then sharing that within the Gems group and also globally to inform the educational standards elsewhere. We want to be leaders in education.”

Super-premium schools open in Dubai

Last year, UAE education provider Taaleem announced it had acquired the rights to own and operate Harrow International Schools across the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.

The UK’s elite 452-year-old Harrow School in London, which has alumni among royalty and world leaders, will open in the next year.

Fiona McKenzie, education consultant and head of Carfax Education, said: “There's lots more coming. I do think there is a demand for the super-premium among a certain demographic who want the very best education for their child, and they want all the kinds of additional extras, and they want perhaps the brand name that's associated with that school.

“The super-premium schools will do well at the moment because the population in Dubai is growing so fast. There's more diversity in the population.

“But the market is quite polarised, there's a huge demographic here for whom those super-premium schools are out of their reach and out of their budget, and they want more just good, solid schools that are going to give their children a good education and get them into a good university.”

She said that as long the education market met every need, it would continue to flourish.

“Because the population of Dubai is growing, each segment of the population is growing, so therefore that demographic that wants that super-premium is also growing," said Ms McKenzie.

She said education remained a top priority for families and was something they would cut back on last. "For some people, they equate, super-premium with the best educational opportunities," she said.

She said super-premium schools needed to deliver on the high fees they charged.

“You can't just charge those fees. What are you giving the families in return?" she said. "I think the first thing you're looking at is the calibre of the staff." She said families also have high expectations for facilities in those schools.

The number of pupils enrolled in Dubai's private schools increased by six per cent this academic year, according to the Knowledge and Human Development Authority.

There are 387,441 pupils enrolled at 227 private schools in the academic year 2024-25. Official statistics showed more than 365,000 pupils were enrolled in Dubai's classrooms in 2023, up from 326,000 in November 2022. Ten schools opened in the emirate for the current academic year. In line with Dubai's Education Strategy 2033, the KHDA aims to establish more than 100 private schools by 2033.