Al Arqm Private School

Al Arqm Private School delivers the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE) curriculum from KG 1 through Grade 12, with Arabic as the primary language of instruction. The academic program spans all core subjects — Arabic, English, Mathematics, Science, Islamic Studies, Moral Social and Cultural Studies (MSCS), and UAE Social Studies — and is assessed through MoE and IBT external examinations. Al Arqm is one of 17 MoE-curriculum schools in Dubai, a comparatively small cohort within a city dominated by British curriculum providers. Among those 17 schools, 10 hold only an Acceptable KHDA rating — and Al Arqm sits within that majority, rated Acceptable in 2023–2024, a position it has held consistently since 2015.

Academic outcomes are uneven across the school's cycles. Inspectors identified genuine strengths at the bookends of the school: attainment and progress in Islamic Education and Mathematics are rated Good in KG and Cycle 3, and Arabic attainment is Good in KG. However, across Cycles 1 and 2, most subjects — including English, Science, and Arabic — sit at only Acceptable. English attainment and progress are Acceptable across all four cycles, a persistent gap given the language's importance to university readiness. In international benchmarking, the school recorded a PIRLS 2021 score of 426, an improvement of 22 points from the previous assessment, though the school still fell short of its targets. More concerning, the Emirati student cohort's PIRLS score decreased by 29 points from 2016 — a finding inspectors flagged directly. On a more positive note, students improved by an average of two grades in Arabic, English, Mathematics, and Science benchmark assessments.

Specialist provision includes a Learning Difficulties Programme supporting 57 students of determination currently enrolled, and an Intensive Arabic programme for non-native speakers. The school also delivers the nationally mandated MSCS and UAE Social Studies frameworks, with Arabic taught as a core subject for 480 minutes per week by 13 qualified teachers. There is no bilingual track, no gifted and talented programme, and no vocational pathway — gaps that are notable when compared to higher-rated MoE and other curriculum schools in Dubai. Curriculum adaptation is rated Weak across all four cycles, meaning the program is not being meaningfully adjusted to meet the needs of different learner groups, including students of determination or high achievers.

Teaching quality is described by inspectors as variable. Stronger practice is concentrated in Islamic Education, Arabic, Mathematics, and Cycle 3 generally, where questioning techniques and feedback are more purposeful. However, assessment is rated Weak in Cycles 1 and 2, and teachers are not yet using assessment data consistently to inform lesson planning. Reading literacy is a school-wide concern: scores are below age-related expectations for the majority of students, and inspectors found that teachers lack the skills to support the weakest readers. The library — a foundational resource for literacy development — is noted as inadequate in the 2023–2024 KHDA inspection.

Where Al Arqm does distinguish itself is in student personal development. Personal development is rated Good across all cycles, and understanding of Islamic values and Emirati culture is rated Very Good in Cycle 3 — the school's single highest inspection rating in any domain. Student attendance is very high, and the school's emphasis on community contribution, healthy living, and cultural identity is a genuine strength. Inspectors also noted that girls' participation in activities beyond academic subjects is limited, and that wellbeing — while rated Acceptable overall — is not yet embedded consistently into curriculum planning. School self-evaluation and governance are both rated Weak, suggesting that the structural foundations for sustained academic improvement remain underdeveloped.