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Dubai School Fees by Grade: The AED 19,344 Step-Up Parents Miss
The advertised entry fee is not the fee a family pays for the whole journey. Across 132 Dubai schools publishing both KG1 and Grade 12 tuition, the median school raises its annual fee by 71.3% between those two points. The median cash step-up is AED 19,344 a year.
The fee staircase
These medians use the same 132 schools at every point, so the line is not distorted by a different school mix in secondary years. The matched-sample median moves from AED 25,616 in KG1 to AED 44,751 in Grade 12.
Curriculum changes the shape of the rise
Indian-curriculum schools start from the lowest median base in this matched sample, then show the largest percentage climb. IB schools have the smallest proportional rise, but their starting point is already the highest. A percentage chart alone therefore hides the cash amount.
| Curriculum | Schools | Median KG1 | Median Grade 12 | Median rise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indian | 23 | AED 11,139 | AED 19,900 | 93% |
| Other | 7 | AED 7,926 | AED 9,499 | 73% |
| UK | 53 | AED 39,597 | AED 73,124 | 71% |
| US | 29 | AED 22,219 | AED 42,434 | 64% |
| IB | 16 | AED 63,565 | AED 96,305 | 60% |
The steepest published ladders
These are not the most expensive schools. They are the schools with the largest percentage gap between their own KG1 and Grade 12 fees. That distinction matters: a low entry price can make a perfectly ordinary senior fee look like an exceptional percentage rise.
| School | Curriculum | KG1 | Grade 12 | Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple International School | UK | AED 7,244 | AED 27,960 | 286% |
| Crescent English School | Indian | AED 2,859 | AED 10,374 | 263% |
| Al Maaref American School | US | AED 12,906 | AED 37,134 | 188% |
| Raffles World Academy | IB | AED 33,544 | AED 93,922 | 180% |
| Star International School | UK | AED 25,915 | AED 71,409 | 176% |
| New Academy School | US | AED 9,238 | AED 24,625 | 167% |
| English Language Private School | UK | AED 4,528 | AED 11,888 | 163% |
| Raffles International School L.L.C (Umm Suqeim South Br) | UK | AED 34,055 | AED 87,879 | 158% |
| The Philippine School | Other | AED 6,443 | AED 16,294 | 153% |
| Sharjah American International Private school | US | AED 17,976 | AED 44,938 | 150% |
| JSS International School | Indian | AED 18,120 | AED 43,698 | 141% |
| Al Ittihad Private School | US | AED 18,635 | AED 42,434 | 128% |
How parents should budget
- Ask for the whole fee ladder, not the current grade. A Year 2 offer does not show the Year 10 commitment.
- Model the published step-ups before inflation. Grade progression and future KHDA-permitted increases are separate effects.
- Compare at the child’s likely exit point. If you expect to move before secondary, a large Grade 12 fee may never affect you.
Sources and method
We used the current grade-by-grade tuition fields in DubaiSchools.ai’s open school dataset, sourced from KHDA fee records. The matched sample includes only schools with numeric fees for both KG1 and Grade 12. Registration, transport, uniforms, trips, meals and learning-support charges are excluded. Percentage increase is calculated within each school before taking the median, which is why it does not equal the percentage difference between the two market-wide endpoint medians. See the methodology and field provenance.
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