Al Rashid Al Saleh Private SchoolMinistry of Education Curriculum, Subjects & Qualifications

Al Rashid Al Saleh Private School follows the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE) curriculum from KG1 through Grade 12, making it one of 17 MoE-curriculum schools operating within Dubai's private sector. Instruction is delivered primarily in Arabic, with English taught as a core subject across all cycles. External examinations are conducted through EMSAT, the Emirates Standardised Test, which serves as the primary gateway to higher education for graduating students. The school holds no formal international accreditation at this time.

Academic performance across the school is uneven but shows genuine strengths at the bookends of the journey. Inspectors rated English attainment in Cycle 3 as Outstanding — the highest possible grade — while Arabic as a First Language and Mathematics both reached Very Good in KG and Cycle 3. These results reflect a school that performs strongest with its youngest and oldest learners. Cycle 1 remains the most persistent weak point, with attainment in English, Mathematics, and Science all rated Good rather than higher, and learning skills in that cycle trailing behind the rest of the school. The school reports a 100% pass rate in secondary general examinations (Thanawiya Amma), with students placing in the national top 10 — a headline figure that parents should weigh alongside the more sobering benchmark data.

That benchmark picture gives cause for concern. The school missed its PIRLS 2021 target by 8 points, and benchmark assessment results in English and mathematics declined to a weak position over two consecutive years. Science results have remained in a weak position throughout the same period. Emirati students — numbering 76 on roll — demonstrated weak performance across all benchmark assessments over two years, a finding that inspectors flagged as a priority area requiring urgent, targeted action. Among MoE-curriculum schools in Dubai, where only 7 of 17 hold a Good rating and 10 are rated merely Acceptable, Al Rashid Al Saleh's consistent Good standing is a relative strength — but the gap to Very Good or Outstanding remains significant and is not closing at the pace inspectors would expect.

The school supports 57 Students of Determination, with inclusion rated Acceptable by inspectors — an area explicitly identified for development. Enrichment reading and writing programmes, digital learning platforms, and a student council are in place, and Cycles 2 and 3 students actively use digital technology to access learning resources. The governing board is actively expanding specialist facilities, though the campus development remains a work in progress. Teaching quality varies considerably across cycles and between boys' and girls' sections, with stronger practice concentrated in KG and Cycle 3. Inspectors noted that assessment data is not yet used consistently enough to close learning gaps, and that self-evaluation processes lack the rigour needed to drive sustained improvement. The school's most distinctive and genuinely impressive quality lies outside the academic domain: personal development and understanding of Islamic values were rated Outstanding across all four cycles — a rare and consistent achievement that speaks to the school's deep-rooted cultural identity, founded on land granted by Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum in 1973.