Over 1,500 new teachers to join GEMS schools

GEMS Education is welcoming 1550 new teachers into its schools for the 2026/27 academic year, taking its educator community to more than 10,000 across the network.

Speaking at an awareness event, group CEO Dino Varkey said the group's schools had received over half a million applications, which was slightly lower than the 600,000-plus pool last year.

He stressed that the underlying appeal of Dubai, and the UAE more broadly, as a destination for educators remains undiminished. "Now last year we had, I think, more teachers joining after 600,000 applications that we received. This year it was only 1,550 from over 500,000 applications that we received, which is interesting," Varkey said.

The new cohort joins GEMS following a global recruitment process and will become part of a community spanning more than 112 nationalities across the organisation.

He went on to frame the figures within a wider regional context, adding that despite fluctuations, the city and country continue to draw talent for the same reasons they always have. "So independent of what we've seen in our region, the attraction principles of this city and of this country still hold true, and consequently our ambition and aspiration to continue to support this country remains unchanged," he said.

Building on that talent: AI, workload and the human connection

Picking up on that same commitment to teachers, Lisa Crausby OBE, Chief Education Officer at GEMS Education, turned the conversation to how the group plans to support its staff in the year ahead, particularly through its approach to artificial intelligence.

Crausby was clear that GEMS intends to introduce AI carefully, according to the government mandate and in line with age-appropriate guidance, while using the technology to ease pressure on staff rather than replace the human relationships that underpin learning.

"AI clearly plays a key role. We have created playbooks around AI and how it can reduce workload for teachers in order to then invest in that human connection," she said.

She pointed to research from leading institutions as evidence that technology and values-driven teaching are not mutually exclusive.

"So as we work through this world of AI, we are making it very, very clear, and all the evidence from UCL and other big universities tell us that AI and values, that human connection, can co-exist, and that is very much our position, and that's the messages that we will be giving to our students and our families," Crausby said.

Building on the recruitment picture Varkey had outlined, Crausby reaffirmed the group's commitment to developing the teachers it brings on board, describing an approach centred on continuous, on-the-job coaching.

"We welcome all of our teachers, we're very focused on instructional coaching, so we develop our people on the job, giving them the safe space to be able to be very open and honest in terms of how we work with our people," she said.

She tied the strategy back to GEMS' broader educational philosophy, framing AI, not as a threat but as a tool to strengthen connection within the school community.

"So we're all about world class, all about excellence, we're about making sure that the potential of every child takes place and also the joy of learning together as a community and sub-communities and so on, and making sure that AI is not something we fear but something that we can use to enhance the human connection," Crausby said.

The emphasis on development appears to be reflected in the numbers GEMS is reporting this year. The organisation says it recorded its strongest teacher retention performance to date, with turnover continuing to decline. More than 3,000 employees have been with GEMS for over a decade, a figure the organisation cites as evidence of the range of career paths available within its network beyond the classroom itself.

GEMS attributes the retention trend partly to its wider people strategy, which combines leadership training and internal mobility between roles with continued investment in wellbeing and engagement. The organisation also runs an Emirati Teacher Assistant Upskilling Programme, which has trained more than 330 Emiratis to date.

On the academic side, GEMS said it is expanding AI-enabled and future-focused learning approaches across its network this year, alongside its existing focus on academic performance, character development, wellbeing and preparing students for life after school.

The group's Family First initiative runs alongside this work, centred on treating parents as partners in a child's education rather than as separate from it, with the stated aim of strengthening ties between schools and the families they serve.