GEMS Education Welcomes 1,550 New Teachers As UAE Schools Gear Up For Academic Year

GEMS Education has welcomed 1,550 new teachers from around the world as UAE schools prepare to welcome students back, taking the education group's educator community to more than 10,000 across its network.

The new teachers were welcomed at the annual GEMS Awareness Day at Atlantis, The Palm in Dubai, where Founder and Chairman Sunny Varkey said the future of education would depend as much on the people in classrooms as the technology and infrastructure around them.

“Buildings and technology matter, but teachers remain the greatest investment we can make. When we invest in outstanding educators, we invest directly in every child's potential and in developing the confident, capable and compassionate leaders our world will need,” Varkey said.

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The latest cohort spans more than 112 nationalities and joins schools offering British, IB, US and Indian curricula, from kindergarten and Foundation Stage through to post-16 education. GEMS receives more than 500,000 job applications annually, highlighting the scale of its global recruitment operation.

For teachers joining GEMS, the rapidly changing role of technology - particularly AI - is already shaping how they think about the classroom. But for those working in the UAE, student wellbeing and safety remain an equally important responsibility.

Nahla Hegab, a High School Science teacher joining GEMS Al Khaleej International, said the regional environment had also reinforced the importance of being prepared to keep students safe.

“In light of the regional conflict, we have received detailed training on school and student safety, with clear, non-negotiable policies in place to keep our students safe,” she said.

At the same time, Hegab said technology has made the world move faster and given teachers the responsibility to help students navigate it safely and responsibly.

“Technology has made the world move faster, and our role as teachers is to prepare students to navigate that world confidently and responsibly. We need to help them understand how to use technology and AI properly, ethically and with integrity,” she said.

Hegab, who has been an educator for 15 years and has taught in the UAE for nine years, said the expectations placed on teachers were also changing, with students and parents increasingly aware of what they want from schools.

“Students are also more aware of their rights, what they want and what they expect from their teachers, while parents' expectations are equally high. We have to meet, and often exceed, those expectations. GEMS Education has clear strategies and ongoing professional development that help us keep pace with these changes,” she said.

At Dubai American Academy, newly appointed High School Dean of Students Matthew Henman said technology, social media and AI had transformed the challenges young people face - making the pastoral role of educators increasingly important.

“The use of technology, social media and now AI has changed the landscape considerably over the two decades I have been teaching. It has changed relationships and created new challenges for young people, so as educators, particularly in a pastoral role, we have to respond to that,” Henman said.

Henman, who is originally from Spain and has previously worked in UAE, China and Vietnam, said he was happy to return to a country that had come to feel like home.

For him, however, creating a sense of belonging for students is central to his new role.

“For students, school needs to be a safe place that they look forward to coming to every day. Consistency matters - having familiar and supportive faces around them. A big part of my role is building strong relationships with students so that they feel supported and can reach their full potential,” he said.

GEMS said its recruitment strategy combines UAE-based talent with educators from international markets, allowing schools to draw on local knowledge as well as different educational perspectives.

The group also said more than 40 per cent of principal appointments over the past 12 months have been internal, while more than 3,000 employees have worked with GEMS for over a decade. Teacher turnover has also continued to decline, with the organisation recording its strongest teacher retention performance to date.

Alongside professional development and internal career opportunities, GEMS continues to invest in local talent through initiatives such as its Emirati Teacher Assistant Upskilling Programme, which has trained more than 330 Emiratis.

As the new academic year begins, the group said it has secured around 95 per cent of its targeted student places through new registrations and re-enrolments, underscoring continued demand for private education in the UAE.

For teachers such as Hegab, however, the job remains about more than keeping pace with changing technology. It is also about the relationship between a teacher and the child sitting in front of them.

“In many ways, my students inspire me before I inspire them. A teacher is a parent at school, as well as a role model, and that is a responsibility I take very seriously,” she said.

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