Choosing a school for your kid is one of those decisions that keeps parents up at night. Dubai’s education authority seems to get that, which is why they’ve just launched a new service to help families figure out where their children should actually go to school. The Knowledge and Human Development Authority—KHDA for short—rolled out the Girnas Educational Advisor, and it’s basically a combination of human expertise and AI tools designed to make the whole school-hunting process less overwhelming.
Let’s be honest, Dubai’s private school scene is huge and kind of all over the place. You’ve got dozens of curricula, wildly different fee structures, and schools scattered across the emirate. For parents, especially those new to the city or enrolling their first child, it can feel like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces. This new service is supposed to change that by giving families actual expert guidance instead of just dumping them into a sea of brochures and marketing materials.
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Getting Real Help, Not Just Sales Pitches
Here’s how it works. Parents can book consultations with KHDA education advisors, either face-to-face or online depending on what suits them better. The key thing here is that these advisors don’t work for the schools—they work for the education authority. So in theory, the advice you’re getting isn’t about filling seats or pushing a particular institution. It’s about finding what actually makes sense for your family.
You start by logging into the KHDA parent portal with UAE Pass and filling out a questionnaire about what matters to you. Location? Budget? Does your child need extra support? Prefer British curriculum over American? All of that gets factored in. Then you can use filters to narrow things down, or if you’re enrolling a kid for the first time, you can schedule a proper one-on-one session where someone walks you through the whole thing.
There’s also an AI chat assistant that handles quick questions—the kind of stuff you’d normally spend an afternoon Googling or calling school offices about. It’s not going to replace human advice for big decisions, but for basic info about admissions timelines or curriculum differences, it could save a lot of time.
Nearly 400 Parents Showed Up on Day One
KHDA unveiled this service at Dubai’s first Education Expo, which ran for two days through November 9. More than 60 private schools and early childhood centers set up booths, and nearly 400 Emirati parents registered for the opening day alone. A lot of them were either looking to enroll kids for the first time or considering transfers, which tells you something about how many families are actively wrestling with these choices.
The turnout suggests parents genuinely want this kind of support. When you’re staring at hundreds of schools and trying to decode what “inquiry-based learning” actually means in practice, having someone who knows the system and can give you straight answers feels like a lifeline.
Will It Actually Deliver?
Aisha Miran, KHDA’s Director General, positioned the service as part of their Education 33 Strategy—basically a push to get parents more involved in their kids’ education rather than just being passive participants. Dr. Amna Almaazmi, who heads growth and human development at KHDA, talked about parents being partners in the learning process, not just customers.
That all sounds good on paper, but the real test is going to be whether the advisors actually know their stuff and whether the recommendations feel honest. If it turns into just another bureaucratic hoop or the advice feels generic, parents will figure that out pretty quickly and stop using it. But if the guidance is solid and saves families from making expensive mistakes or choosing schools that don’t fit their kids, this could be a genuinely useful tool.
For now, at least, Dubai parents have a new option when they’re trying to answer that age-old question: where should we send our child to school? And having someone who’s not trying to sell you something help you figure that out? That’s probably worth exploring.