Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has established dedicated councils for parents and educators, alongside a second cohort of its Dubai Students Council, creating formal platforms through which families, teachers and students can contribute to the development of the emirate’s private education sector.

Announced on 7 October 2026, the initiative brings together 15 parents in the Dubai Parents Council, 15 teachers and education professionals in the Dubai Educators Council, and 16 students from Grades 9 to 12 in the Dubai Students Council for the 2026–27 academic year. The councils are intended to strengthen dialogue between the education regulator and the communities directly affected by education policy, with a focus on student learning, wellbeing, inclusion and teacher support.

The initiative builds on Dubai’s Education 33 (E33) Strategy, which seeks to move the education system towards a more learner-centred model. Its significance, however, extends beyond the establishment of representative groups. It raises an important question about how parents, educators and students can contribute to education policy while the existing legal responsibilities of schools and the regulatory authority remain in place.

The councils are consultative platforms, not new judicial or regulatory bodies. Their role is to contribute perspectives and inform policies and programmes; the announcement does not establish any independent power for them to decide individual disputes, impose penalties on schools or override KHDA’s statutory functions.

From Student Representation to a Wider Community Model

KHDA first introduced the Dubai Students Council for the 2025–26 academic year as part of the E33 Strategy’s Leaders of Tomorrow initiative. It was designed to give students from different school curricula and backgrounds a structured opportunity to share their experiences and contribute to discussions on education policy.

According to KHDA’s June 2026 announcement, the first year of the Students Council included 16 internal meetings, an interactive platform for gathering student feedback and a dedicated newsletter to improve communication. The authority subsequently extended this approach by announcing the creation of parent and educator councils for the following academic year.

The latest announcement confirms that all three councils have now been brought together as part of this broader participation model. KHDA received 131 nominations for the Students Council, 152 for the Parents Council and 160 for the Educators Council. Members were selected through a structured process intended to promote fairness, transparency and diversity.

The councils will operate for one year from the date of official appointment. Membership is voluntary and unpaid, although members may apply for a second term, subject to performance and continued eligibility.

This expansion reflects a shift towards treating the people who experience education most directly as contributors to policy development, rather than solely as recipients of decisions made by institutions and regulators.

What Will Each Council Do?

Although the three councils share the objective of improving Dubai’s education system, each represents a different perspective and has a distinct role.

Dubai Parents Council

The Parents Council brings together Emirati and expatriate parents whose children attend private schools across Dubai. Its purpose is to provide a channel for parents to share common concerns, strengthen cooperation between families and schools, and contribute to policies and initiatives affecting student learning and family wellbeing.

The council is particularly relevant to issues where the family experience can provide useful insight into how education policies work in practice, including student wellbeing, inclusion, communication with schools and community engagement.

Dubai Educators Council

The Educators Council comprises teachers and education professionals who can contribute knowledge drawn from classroom teaching and educational leadership. It is intended to give educators a direct channel to share evidence-based recommendations on teaching and learning, student wellbeing, inclusion and teacher-related matters.

Its role recognises that the practical effects of education policy are often first experienced by the people responsible for implementing it. Educator input can therefore help KHDA assess whether policies and programmes are workable across different schools and curricula.

Dubai Students Council

The Students Council gives secondary-school students an opportunity to communicate their aspirations, educational experiences and suggestions directly to KHDA. The second cohort comprises 16 students from Grades 9 to 12 representing private schools across Dubai.

The council is intended to ensure that students’ perspectives inform policy development and that the design of learning environments considers the experiences of the learners themselves.

Together, the councils create a model in which policy discussions can draw on three complementary perspectives: the family’s experience, the educator’s professional knowledge and the student’s experience of learning.

Education 33: The Policy Framework Behind the Councils

The councils form part of Dubai’s wider Education 33 Strategy, which sets out the emirate’s education ambitions over the coming decade.

The strategy identifies five broad objectives: empowering Emiratis through high-quality education, ensuring equitable and accessible learning, engaging educators and parents, strengthening Dubai’s position as a world-class education destination, and developing an innovative education ecosystem. It also provides for 28 initiatives intended to improve educational experiences and outcomes in phases.

The councils are aligned with initiatives identified by KHDA as Leaders of Tomorrow, Pathway Partners and All Rise, intended to empower students, families and educators. Their establishment reflects the strategy’s emphasis on a learner-centred system supported by active participation from the wider education community.

The legal and administrative significance is that the councils provide an organised channel through which this policy objective can be pursued. Rather than relying exclusively on periodic consultations or feedback submitted through individual schools, KHDA can engage with designated representatives of the communities affected by its programmes.

However, the E33 Strategy is the policy context for the councils, not a substitute for the legislation governing private schools. The councils’ recommendations do not, by themselves, amend existing legal requirements or create new statutory rights for individual parents and students.

How the Councils Fit Within the Existing Legal Framework

Dubai already has a regulatory framework governing private schools, their responsibilities towards students and parents, and KHDA’s supervisory role.

Executive Council Resolution No. 2 of 2017 Regulating Private Schools in the Emirate of Dubai establishes obligations relating to student affairs, complaints, safety and protection, and communication with parents. It requires private schools to maintain appropriate student-affairs policies, protect students’ rights and operate approved procedures for handling student and parent complaints. The framework also gives KHDA powers to receive and investigate complaints against private schools and take appropriate regulatory action.

The resolution also requires schools to provide parents with information concerning students’ academic attainment and to raise parents’ awareness of matters relating to their children’s rights and obligations. These requirements demonstrate that parental engagement is not entirely new to Dubai’s regulatory system. The councils add a more direct route for parents to contribute to policy and programme development at the level of the regulator.

The distinction is important. Existing school regulations establish duties that schools must follow. The councils, by contrast, provide a channel for sharing experiences and recommendations that may help inform future policies.

For example, parents may identify recurring concerns about communication or student wellbeing, while educators may offer insight into how proposed initiatives affect teaching practices. Students may highlight aspects of school life that are not immediately apparent from formal assessments or inspection reports.

Such feedback may assist KHDA in evaluating its priorities, but the creation of a council does not automatically alter a school’s existing obligations or provide a new route for enforcing them.

Do the Councils Change How Parents Can Raise Complaints?

The establishment of the Parents Council should not be confused with the individual complaint and dispute-resolution procedures already available to parents.

KHDA’s published guidance states that parents involved in disputes with schools should first use the school’s internal complaint process and complete and document the relevant resolution steps. If the dispute remains unresolved, it may be referred to KHDA through its official channels, where supporting documentation may be requested.

This process remains important for matters such as disagreements over fees or refunds, contractual obligations and other disputes between parents and education providers.

The Parents Council has a different purpose: it provides a platform for parents to contribute to wider policies, programmes and education priorities. The public announcement does not identify it as a forum for determining individual complaints, directing schools to provide refunds or making binding decisions in disputes.

Accordingly, a parent with a specific grievance should continue to use the established school and KHDA procedures rather than assuming that raising the matter through a council will initiate formal proceedings.

This distinction also matters for private schools. Participation in a broader consultation mechanism does not displace the requirement to maintain effective internal complaint procedures or comply with directions issued by the competent authority.

Representation, Inclusion and Accountability

The value of the councils will depend not only on their establishment but also on how effectively they represent the wider education community.

KHDA has stated that the councils are intended to promote fairness, diversity and broad representation, with the Parents Council including Emirati and expatriate parents. The Educators Council also received nominations that included Emirati education professionals.

This is particularly relevant in Dubai, where private schools cater to families following different curricula and educational approaches. A concern that is significant for one school community may not affect another in the same way. Representative participation can help identify these differences before policies are developed or expanded.

Inclusion is another important consideration. KHDA’s separate Administrative Resolution No. 15 of 2026 approved the Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework and related guidelines for private schools. This illustrates that inclusion also operates through formal regulatory instruments, with responsibilities that cannot be replaced by consultation alone.

The councils may provide useful feedback on how policies affecting diverse learners are experienced in practice. However, the existence of a representative body does not itself establish that every concern raised by an individual family will be adopted or resolved.

Their effectiveness will therefore depend on whether feedback is gathered systematically, considered by KHDA and translated into practical improvements where appropriate. Transparency about priorities and outcomes will be important to maintaining confidence in the process.

What This Means for Schools, Families and Educators

For private schools, the councils introduce an additional point of engagement with KHDA and the wider education community. Schools may need to consider how their existing approaches to parent communication, student participation and educator feedback align with the broader direction of the E33 Strategy.

The announcement does not, however, introduce a separate statutory obligation for every school to establish an equivalent council or make membership of the new bodies mandatory for parents, teachers or students.

For parents, the initiative offers an opportunity for family perspectives to inform wider education policies. For educators, it offers a route to contribute professional experience to discussions about student learning, classroom practice and teacher wellbeing. For students, it reinforces the principle that their experiences should be considered when learning environments and education initiatives are designed.

The practical benefit will depend on the connection between consultation and implementation. Collecting views is only the first step; the longer-term significance lies in how those views help identify problems, inform policy choices and improve educational experiences.

Looking Ahead

The establishment of the Dubai Parents Council and Dubai Educators Council, alongside the second cohort of the Students Council, marks a further step in KHDA’s effort to involve the wider education community in shaping private education policy.

The initiative supports the participatory aims of the Education 33 Strategy while operating alongside Dubai’s existing regulatory framework for private schools. It does not transfer KHDA’s statutory authority to the councils or replace schools’ obligations relating to student protection, parent communication and complaints handling.

For schools and families, the distinction is straightforward: the councils create additional opportunities to contribute to the direction of education policy, while established legal rights, regulatory requirements and dispute-resolution procedures remain in place.

Ultimately, the success of the initiative will depend on whether these platforms lead to meaningful engagement and demonstrable improvements in the quality, accessibility and experience of education across Dubai’s private school sector.

References

Executive Council Resolution No. 2 of 2017 Regulating Private Schools in the Emirate of Dubai https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2017/Executive%20Council%20Resolution%20No.%20%282%29%20of%202017.html accessed 11 October 2026.

Administrative Resolution No. 15 of 2026 Approving the Dubai Inclusive Education Policy Framework, and Directives and Guidelines for Inclusive Education for Private Schools in the Emirate of Dubai https://dlp.dubai.gov.ae/Legislation%20Reference/2026/Administrative%20Resolution%20No.%20%2815%29%20of%202026%20Policy%20for%20Inclusive%20Education%20for%20Private%20Schools.html accessed 11 October 2026.

Knowledge and Human Development Authority, ‘KHDA Launches Dubai Students Council to Amplify Student Voices and Nurture Leadership Skills’ (18 June 2025) https://web.khda.gov.ae/en/About-Us/News/2025/KHDA-launches-Dubai-Students-Council-to-amplify-st accessed 11 October 2026.

Knowledge and Human Development Authority, ‘KHDA to Launch Dubai Parents Council and Dubai Educators Council to Strengthen Community Participation’ (8 June 2026) https://web.khda.gov.ae/en/About-Us/News/2026/KHDA-to-launch-Dubai-Parents-Council-and-Dubai-Edu accessed 11 October 2026.

Government of Dubai, ‘Education 33 Strategy’ https://www.dubai.ae/web/dubai.ae/living/education/education-33-strategy accessed 11 October 2026.

Sajila Saseendran, ‘Dubai KHDA Launches New Councils to Empower Parents, Educators, and Students in Private Schools’ Gulf News (7 October 2026) https://gulfnews.com/uae/dubai-khda-launches-new-councils-to-empower-parents-educators-and-students-in-private-schools-1.500701492 accessed 11 October 2026.

Emirates News Agency (WAM), ‘KHDA Introduces Students, Parents, Educators Councils’ (7 October 2026) https://www.wam.ae/en/article/c2mg2b9-khda-introduces-students-parents-educators accessed 11 October 2026.

Balaram Menon, ‘Dubai Expands Education Councils to Include Parents and Teachers’ Gulf News (8 June 2026) https://gulfnews.com/uae/education/dubai-expands-education-councils-to-include-parents-and-teachers-1.500567253 accessed 11 October 2026.

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