A Quick Guide to Children’s Education in the Gulf States
The kind of professional, managerial and technological jobs available to expatriates in the Gulf States are usually highly rewarding financially. But no matter whether you’re stepping into a Kuwait job, a Qatar job or a Dubai IT job, if you’re taking your family with you, you’re quickly going to be faced with the task of sorting out the optimal educational choice for your children.
Most of the time, expatriates (especially if non-Muslim) will find it impossible to find a place for their children in a state school. Priority is nearly always given to local Arab youngsters. If you’re not sure how long you’ll be staying, it’s probably safe to assume that you’ll be there for about two years – and opting for a private school makes much more sense if this is so. Some, though not many, expatriates manage to stay in their new country for many years; even so, few of them opt for state schools even under these longer term conditions, not least because such a decision would isolate their children from the local expat community.
You may think that state schools will facilitate your child’s integration into the culture (you’ll be required to convert to Islam if this is your wish); but a major obstacle for most expat children is the use of Arabic in state schools. The curriculum is entirely based on it, and older children in particular will struggle.
Most private schools are co-educational (state schools are all single sex) and probably offer a less abrupt switch in culture for expatriate children, as they will be meeting others who speak English as a first language and who, like them, have recently entered a new country with their parents.
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