As the UAE Dedicates 2026 to the Family, the Education Sector Sits at the Very Heart of its Ambitions. This Year, That Has Meant More Than Good Intentions.
Following the directive of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 2026 has been designated the ‘Year of the Family’, under the tagline Growing in Unity. Announced at the National Family Growth Agenda 2031 session during the UAE Government Annual Meetings, the declaration is more than a ceremonial theme. It is a national policy signal. And for education in the UAE, that signal has taken on a meaning nobody quite anticipated when the year began.
This has been the year of the family in the most literal, lived sense. Families did not just lean into the theme. They lived it, daily, at the kitchen table, on the school run that wasn’t, in the group chats with teachers and in the day-to-day conversations with anxious kids and teenagers.
This has been a semester unlike any other. Since late February 2026, distance learning was introduced as a precautionary measure amid regional security concerns linked to ongoing conflict, and what followed tested UAE families in ways few could have predicted. Parents juggled remote work and home schooling simultaneously, often under the strain of disrupted sleep due to middle-of-the-night emergency alerts, mental fatigue, and heightened stress. Then came the news that shook examination year groups most of all: every major exam board operating in the UAE cancelled or significantly disrupted its 2026 examinations. Cambridge, IB, Pearson Edexcel, OxfordAQA, CBSE, CISCE, the list was complete.
For students holding conditional university offers, it was a mix of relief and uncertainty. Relief from the immediate pressure, but also anxiety around how grades would be determined and what it meant for their futures. For parents, it was another chapter in a semester that asked an enormous amount of them.
And yet, the families in the UAE persevered through it all.
Behind the Scenes, a Team Effort
Funke Baffour-Awuah, corporate head of wellbeing at GEMS Education said,
“There is no version of a sudden return to distance learning that does not carry disruption.”
But what the disruption revealed was something worth noting: the depth of the relationships schools had already built with their communities.
When the Ministry of Education announced the shift to distance learning on the evening of 4 May, schools did not wait for morning. Leaders, teachers and support staff worked through the night to realign timetables, test platforms and prepare communications so that when children opened their laptops the next day, everything was ready.
At Jebel Ali School, Principal Simon Jodrell described it as exactly that, a real team effort, with the leadership team working late into the evening to ensure nothing fell through the cracks, particularly for examination year groups already navigating an uncertain semester.
Nicholas Brain, Principal of Jumeirah College Dubai, said the school was able to pivot within hours of the announcement.
Teachers, students and parents were already familiar with the relevant platforms, which meant live lessons could resume without delay. Once online, his teachers drew on a mix of interactive lessons, collaborative group work and digital tools, with regular check-ins, discussions and feedback loops built into every session. Wellbeing check-ins and co-curricular activities continued in virtual formats too, because keeping students connected and supported was treated as just as important as keeping them on schedule.
The Relationships That Held
For Martin Cole, Principal at Horizon English School Jumeirah, the speed of the transition owed as much to people as it did to platforms. Many of the approaches developed during the pandemic had not simply been remembered. As he put it,
“Many of the approaches developed during that time have not only been remembered, but adapted and enhanced, and continue to shape our practice today. A key strength has been our high levels of staff retention, meaning many of our teachers bring valuable experience and consistency from that period, which has been instrumental in supporting both children and families now.”
His focus throughout, he said, had been on two things.
“Continuity in sustaining academic progress, and connection in maintaining strong, meaningful relationships so that every child continues to feel supported, known, and part of a community.
Martin Cole, Principal, Horizon English School Jumeirah said,
“We recognise that in times of uncertainty, both families and staff need support more than ever, and taking a human and compassionate approach is essential.”
That combination of operational readiness and genuine human investment was what set the sector apart. The institutions that fared best this semester were not simply the best resourced. They were the ones where trust between school and family had been built quietly, consistently, over years.
The Academic Calendar as a Family Policy
One of the most meaningful ways the UAE had already translated its family values into educational practice was through the academic calendar itself. The 2025-2026 school year was designed with family wellbeing explicitly in mind: a unified calendar across all emirates and school types to help families plan with confidence, and an extended winter break running from December through early January to allow meaningful family time.
The events of this semester gave that policy a different kind of resonance. When schools moved online and families suddenly found themselves managing everything at once, the groundwork of a coherent, predictable system mattered more than anyone had anticipated.
Dr Wafi Dawood, CEO of the Strategic Development Sector at KHDA said,
“Schools have the flexibility to combine on-site and distance learning and must ensure these options are available to all students, based on their needs.”
The Ministry of Education’s commitment to communicating clearly, reviewing the situation weekly and updating families through official channels was itself a form of family policy in action. KHDA spokesperson said,
“As a father, I understand the stresses that some of these students are going through. Please, on a daily basis, reach out as much as you can, because the schools have the most up-to-date information. Always remember, the KHDA team is here for you and your family.”
Families and Schools Working Together as Partners
Dubai schools were directed to offer flexible learning options as students began returning to campuses, with a mix of in-person and distance education available during the transition period, based on each family’s needs and comfort level. That flexibility was not a logistical footnote. It was a statement about the kind of partnership the UAE’s education sector is committed to.
This year, KHDA moved to make that partnership more meaningful than ever. At the UAE’s first dedicated Education Expo, bringing together more than 60 private schools and early childhood centres, Emirati families were invited to explore their options, ask hard questions, and make confident, values-driven choices for their children. The regulator also launched an AI-powered consultation service on its parent portal, guiding families through school options based on their individual priorities. A tool that directly embodies the Year of the Family’s goal of empowering parents as genuine partners, not passive recipients.
“At the UAE’s first dedicated Education Expo, the KHDA brought together more than 60 private schools and early childhood centres”
Raising Capable, Connected Generations
The Year of the Family’s tagline – Growing in Unity, contains an important word: growing. Growth implies movement, development, something reaching toward the light. This semester, UAE families grew in ways they did not plan for. They adapted, problem-solved, and showed up for their children under conditions that would have felt unimaginable a year ago.
The Year of the Family’s tagline – Growing in Unity – contains an important word, growing
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum,
“We are a nation that does not stop at challenges. We are a nation that never stops learning and teaching.”
This is the UAE’s long-term bet. A child raised in a strong, connected family, educated in an environment that honours both excellence and belonging, becomes an adult who contributes meaningfully to the nation. The family is not separate from the nation’s ambitions, it is where those ambitions begin.
What Each of Us Can Continue to do
The Year of the Family is not a passive observation. It is an active invitation. For parents who carried an enormous load this semester, it is also a recognition. What you did mattered. Keeping your child on schedule when the routine collapsed. Sitting beside them during online lessons. Reassuring a teenager whose exams had been cancelled that their hard work had not been wasted, that the work they put in over years of study does not disappear because the format changed.
For teachers, it might mean making one more effort to involve a family in their child’s learning journey, having already proven this semester that they are capable of far more than their job description requires. For schools, it might mean designing programmes that bring the warmth of this period forward into the year ahead.
The UAE has always understood that behind every student is a family, and behind every family is the foundation of the nation itself. This year, the country did not just say that. It lived it.
Growing in unity is not just a tagline. In 2026, for UAE families navigating one of the most disrupted semesters in recent memory, it became something closer to a lived truth.