← Back to blog · 16 May 2026

What It Actually Costs to Send Two Kids Through a Dubai School: KG to Year 13

The median Dubai private school costs AED 410,880 across the full 14-year ladder from KG1 to Year 13 — and AED 821,760 for two kids. Allow for the 3% annual fee increase KHDA permits and that becomes AED 1,020,732. Here is what's actually in the bill.

The headline number

We have full grade-by-grade fees for 169 of Dubai's 226 KHDA-inspected schools (the rest don't publish complete ladders). For each, we summed the published fee from KG1 through Year 13. That sum is the all-in tuition cost for one child, in today's AED, before any annual increases.

• Cheapest school with a full ladder: Iranian Salman Farsi Boys School — AED 38,831 per child, or AED 77,662 for two.
• Median school: AED 410,880 per child. Two kids: AED 821,760.
• Most expensive: North London Collegiate School Middle East L.L.C - — AED 1,628,442 per child. Two kids: AED 3,256,884.

The 10x gap between the cheapest and most expensive full-ladder Dubai schools is the largest in any developed-world city we know of. There is no London or Singapore equivalent of paying AED 8K/yr at one school and AED 110K/yr at the school across the road — but in Dubai, that's the actual market.

Compounded with the KHDA fee cap

KHDA caps annual fee increases via its Education Cost Index, which has averaged around 3% over the past five years. The 14-year compounded number is what your bank account actually pays.

By curriculum: a four-band spread

Median lifetime cost varies dramatically by curriculum. Indian schools cluster in the budget tier; UK and IB schools cluster premium and luxury.

The 10 most expensive Dubai schools (full 14-year ladder, one child)

The 10 cheapest (with a full ladder)

Three things parents miss

• Fees compound, salaries don't. A 3% annual fee increase doubles the bill every 24 years. Your salary probably won't. Most expat parents under-budget by a third because they multiply today's annual fee by 14 instead of compounding.
• Year 12–13 is a step change. At many UK-curriculum schools, fees rise by 10-20% when you cross into Year 12. The grade-by-grade fee ladder we have shows it clearly on every school page.
• Extras are 10–25% on top. Tuition is most of the bill but not all of it. Registration (one-off AED 500-5,000 per school), uniforms (AED 2-5K/yr), books and devices (AED 1-3K/yr), bus (AED 7-14K/yr if used), exam entries (Year 11+, ~AED 3-8K), trips. Budget at minimum 10% on top of tuition for state-school-style usage, 25% if you use bus + uniform + trips at a premium school.

Sources and methodology

14-year tuition = sum of published fees for KG1, KG2, and Grades 1-12 at each school, as filed with KHDA and reflected on the school's profile here. Schools missing more than four of those 14 grades were excluded (no extrapolation). "+3% / yr" applies a flat 3% compound from year 0 (KG1) to year 13 (Y13) — the long-run average KHDA increase, not a forecast.

Want the full per-grade ladder for a specific school? Every school's individual page shows year-by-year fees, the KHDA-rated trajectory, and how it compares to its curriculum peers on the fee axis.