Every school starts at 25. KHDA's overall rating adds the biggest chunk (up to 30). Wellbeing and inclusion ratings add up to 20 more. The rest — up to 25 — comes from signals the rating alone misses: whether the school is improving over time, how long it has operated, its scale, and growth. The score is capped at 100.
Why we built a composite
The KHDA overall rating is excellent, but it's five bands (Weak → Outstanding). Twenty Dubai schools carry "Very Good" and they are not interchangeable. The DubaiSchools Score exists to separate them — using public KHDA signals already in the inspection reports, not opinions or surveys.
If two schools tie on the rating, the score asks: which is improving? Which has a longer track record? Which has the wellbeing and inclusion marks to back the overall grade up?
The formula
Every component is additive. Points are awarded from KHDA public data on a per-school basis.
| Component | Max points |
|---|---|
| Base score (every rated school starts here) | 25 |
| KHDA overall rating | 30 |
| KHDA wellbeing rating | 10 |
| KHDA inclusion rating | 10 |
| Rating improvement trend (year-over-year) | 10 |
| Track record (years since opening) | 8 |
| Student population (scale) | 5 |
| Enrollment growth trend | 2 |
| Total, capped at 100 | 100 |
KHDA ratings → points
The three KHDA ratings (overall / wellbeing / inclusion) each award a fixed number of points by band.
| KHDA band | Overall | Wellbeing | Inclusion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outstanding | 30 | 10 | 10 |
| Very Good | 24 | 8 | 8 |
| Good | 18 | 6 | 6 |
| Acceptable | 12 | 4 | 4 |
| Weak | 6 | 2 | 2 |
Rating trend
Using KHDA's rating history (typically the last five inspection years), we compare the earliest rating on file to the latest:
| Moved up at least one band | +10 |
| Held the same band | +5 |
| Dropped a band | 0 |
Track record
Schools that have been operating longer have been inspected more times and adjusted across more cohorts. Points by years since opening:
| 25+ years | +8 |
| 15 – 24 years | +6 |
| 10 – 14 years | +5 |
| 5 – 9 years | +3 |
| Less than 5 years | +2 |
Student population & growth
A small signal for scale (large schools can usually sustain more subject depth and extracurriculars), and a small signal for whether enrollment is trending up, stable, or falling.
| 3,000+ students | +5 |
| 1,500 – 2,999 students | +4 |
| 500 – 1,499 students | +3 |
| Under 500 students | +2 |
| Enrollment grew >10% over the last ~3 years | +2 |
| Enrollment held stable (within 10%) | +1 |
Score bands
On school cards, the rankings page, and the detail-page hero, the numeric score is colour-coded into four bands so you can scan at a glance.
Where the score appears
Search results
Numeric badge in the top-right of every school card.
School detail page
Large score in the hero, next to the KHDA rating.
Rankings page
Sortable pill per row; default sort is score, descending.
Compare & featured
Side-by-side score comparison; homepage "At a glance" shortlist.
What the score is not
- It is not a replacement for reading the KHDA inspection report. The report has detail the score can't carry — classroom observations, subject-level strengths, recommendations for improvement.
- It does not consider fees, commute distance, curriculum fit, facilities, admissions ease, or cultural fit. Those are school-by-family questions no composite can answer.
- It does not weight exam results directly — KHDA already folds exam performance into its overall rating, so double-counting would distort the score.
- Schools without a KHDA inspection on file receive only the base 25 points plus any track-record and scale points that apply. They are marked on the site as "No KHDA Report Available."
- Abu Dhabi schools follow the same formula but substitute ADEK ratings where KHDA is not applicable.
Data sources & update cadence
Every score input is drawn from publicly available inspection reports and school disclosures:
- KHDA — Dubai inspection ratings, wellbeing & inclusion scores, rating history
- ADEK — Abu Dhabi equivalents
- School-published establishment dates and enrollment figures, cross-checked against inspection reports
Scores are recomputed whenever new KHDA inspection results are released (typically once a year) and when schools file updated enrollment figures.
Independence
DubaiSchools.ai has no financial relationship with any school, KHDA, or ADEK. The score formula is the same for every school — no paid placement, no boosted ranking. See the About page for our full independence statement.
If you spot data that looks wrong on a specific school, email hello@dubaischools.ai and we'll check the source documents.
Promoted listings policy
If a school ever pays us for placement on the site, three rules apply and will never change:
- The listing will carry a visible Promoted badge — the same badge, same position, on every card.
- The school's position in the main list is not boosted. Ranking is still determined entirely by the DubaiSchools Score described above.
- Any dedicated Promoted slot (e.g. a banner or "Sponsored" strip) sits outside the main score-ranked list and is clearly labelled as such.
This commitment is structural: the badge exists in code before any promoted inventory has been sold, so you can verify the policy was designed in — not retrofitted.