Dubai's educational oversight body, the KHDA, has introduced a new "guiding framework" for the city's private schools to assess the well-being of children and teachers.KHDA is the body responsible for regulating education in Dubai. Its goal is to provide parents, educators, and students with a shared understanding of what wellness in schools looks like and how it may be enhanced. It outlines expectations for well-being provision at private schools and how it is identified at particular stages of development, with the goal of providing a consistent reference point for school leaders, governors, educators, and parents.

According to international research, student well-being is an important factor in improving educational outcomes because it helps students have positive school experiences and higher levels of self-esteem, which makes them more motivated. KHDA states that school leaders must make the welfare of teachers and other staff a central strategic priority in their pursuit of higher levels of student well-being.

KHDA has a long history of supporting the improvement of well-being. In 2007, the Dubai Plan 2015 was introduced, emphasizing wellbeing as a crucial enabler of social development and a significant driver of strategic excellence. The gradual creation of the Dubai Plan 2021 and, most recently, the Dubai Plan 2030, which put health and education at the top of the list of national objectives, further strengthened this commitment.

To bring these efforts to fruition, KHDA established the Dubai Student Wellbeing Census in 2017. More than 100,000 students per year have offered input over the past five years, resulting in one of the largest and most sophisticated data sets on student well-being in the world. The role of teachers and other staff members, with whom students spend a lot of time, is also emphasized in the new framework, in addition to students' well-being. Securing healthy, encouraging, and empowering working circumstances is a crucial area of priority for school governance and leadership because teacher turnover and teacher confidence have been recognized as impediments to wellness. Wellbeing Matters is built on the legacy of the Dubai Student Wellbeing Census.

The three basic performance indicators of how well a school supports wellness will be the focus of the DSIB inspection teams' attention during their inspections:

1. Leading and pursuing wellbeing
2. Listening to and supporting stakeholders
3. Enabling well-being experiences and outcomes

The inspection report and parent summary report for each school, both of which are scheduled to be released in 2023, will include the findings of the well-being evaluation. Click here for the link to read the full KHDA Wellbeing Framework.