Can boarding schools in the UAE thrive?

The concept of boarding schools is relatively new to our education system, tracing its UAE beginnings to 2009, when Repton College Dubai welcomed boarders through its school gates for the first time. Soon, however, there will be a second boarding school in the emirate.

As The National reported last week, the Swiss International Scientific School is opening its boarding facilities this September, offering an alternative Swiss system with a strong focus on bilingual learning. Elsewhere, Cranleigh Abu Dhabi said in 2013 that it would offer students daily, weekly and full-time boarding places, although it has yet to do so.

These schools suggest the beginnings of a trend that could position the UAE as a regional hub for boarding pupils. Schools of this type are an age-old part of the education fabric in other parts of the world, but are something altogether new to the Gulf.

If boarding schools are to be successful in this country – and many cash-strapped parents will say that fees that spiral beyond Dh170,000 effectively price them out of the market – we would recommend that they seek to find a regional flavour to their offering, instead of simply importing and imposing a system from Europe, America or South Asia and planting it in the desert sand. The key to success, one might argue, is to borrow the best of the existing system from overseas, while reinventing the sector for a curious region that recognises the importance of education to future generations.

The development of this sector doesn’t just benefit those who already live here. The creation of boarding schools here would doubtless prove popular with parents from around the Arabian Gulf, Turkey, India and across the Middle East. Our central geographic location means that many students wouldn’t have to travel as far as Europe or the United States to seek what is, potentially, a world-class education.

There is, in other words, an opportunity for the education sector. By a combination of geography, economy and curiosity, boarding schools may be the next big thing in schooling here, but they must not seek to be pale facsimiles of better-established facilities in other parts of the world. 

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/editorial/can-boarding-schools-in-the-uae-thrive