UAE continues to lead global market for international schools

The United Arab Emirates is the leading country in the world for international schools with 593 English-medium international schools for 3 to 18 year olds, meeting the learning needs of almost 600,000 students, according to the latest Global Report released by ISC Research.

China, India, Pakistan, and Spain round up the top five international schools markets with 563, 484, 474, and 367 schools respectively.

The 2017 Global Report indicates that, as of December 2016, there were almost 4.5 million students attending over 8,600 international schools globally, with the vast majority of student enrolment being local children aiming for higher education in the West.

The report indicates continued growth of schools and student intake for the Middle East, which has seen 40.3% growth in the number of international schools since 2012 to a current total of 1,524 schools. Student enrolment has increased at an even greater rate, by 49.5% to 1,417,000 generating fee income of US$10 billion.

In Saudi Arabia, the impact of the oil and gas slump has led to renewed clarity for the need to develop alternative revenue streams. With over 30% of the country's population under the age of 15, and a recognition for the need for improved education options, the Saudi government is planning to increase private sector school provision. Around 2,000 government schools are to be made administratively and financially independent, while 3,000 small and medium sized private schools across the Kingdom are to be closed as they do not meet standards set out by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Education. 500 of these school are being saved and improved upon by a US$1.3 billion project that has been launched this year between a group of real estate, education and investment organisations, a project that also includes the plan to create 100 new international schools in the country.

Elsewhere, Qatar is investing extensively in infrastructure projects over the next few years and ISC is aware of more than 20 new schools in the planning stages for the country. New developments are also likely in Kuwait.

"Demand for places at English-medium international schools throughout the Middle East continues to increase, even whilst the region has been bearing the brunt of the slump in the oil and gas market when many expatriate employees and their families were being sent home. Across the region, overall enrolment at international schools increased by 7.8% from September 2015 to September 2016 and has continued to increase into the 2016-17 school year," Nalini Cook, head of Middle East research at ISC Research told Education Journal Middle East.

The ISC reports that the global market for international schools will "continue to develop at a healthy pace", forecasting that within five years (2021) the number of students attending international schools will have reached 6.3 million.