Parents prefer nurseries over nannies, with enrolments up 15% in past year
Parents in Dubai are increasingly choosing to send their children to nurseries rather than hiring nannies to take care of them at home, the latest data has found.
More than 23,500 children are enrolled in early childhood centres – up 3,000 on a year ago, figures published this week by Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority show.
Reflecting this 15 per cent increase in nursery enrolments, in the past year, 27 new early childhood centres have opened in the emirate.
This has brought the number of nurseries in Dubai to nearly 250, said officials.
“Early childhood centres are not only about today’s children, they are about tomorrow’s innovators and changemakers,” said Abdulla Al Karam, director general of the KHDA.
“The enrolment growth we have seen in the past year is a clear indication of the effort centres have made to improve quality and of the trust that parents have placed in early childhood centres to provide children with rich learning experiences.”
Faten El Hajj, owner and director of Canadian Kids Nursery in Business Bay, said many parents prefer to entrust their children to nurseries, rather than at home with nannies.
“They want to put them in a place where there is high supervision, as well as trained people who have approval from authorities in Dubai,” she said.
“Also, the children benefit from coming to the nursery. Parents want to put their children in the nursery for them to have a community and to socialise with other children.”
Ms El Hajj said the benefits of enrolling children at early childhood centres include enabling them to learn, develop self-esteem and gain more social and emotional skills.
She said financial reasons were another factor, as nurseries are less expensive than hiring a full-time nanny.
Ms El Hajj, who opened her nursery in 2013, said she has seen a surge in demand over the past year.
“I am in a business area where we have a lot of companies and commercial and business towers, so of course the demand is high,” she said.
Sarka Hadermayerova, 45, a project manager with a luxury lighting company, sent her one-year-old daughter to Canadian Kids Nursery.
She said she opted against hiring a nanny as she wanted her daughter to mix with other people, but also to be around only family members at home.
“It’s very good for the child’s personality to meet more people, not only the children. I think they learn to respect authority,” said Czech national Ms Hadermayerova.
“Also, educationally it’s better for children because nannies only care for the baby, give them food and make sure they don’t fail. There is no added value to that.”
At a nursery, children are exposed to more ways of learning from trained people, she said.
While some parents express concerns about their offspring being exposed to illnesses at nurseries, Ms Hadermayerova said “they are increasing their immunity by meeting other people and other children”.
In Dubai, parents can choose from a wide range of centres offering 14 curriculums and learning approaches – with Arabic, English, French, Spanish and Russian among the main languages of instruction.
Two thirds of those enrolled are aged between two and four. Nearly 80 per cent of those enrolled attend five days a week.
Last October, a 12 per cent increase in enrolments at Dubai private schools was recorded – up to 365,000 pupils from 326,000 in November 2022.
This growth shows … the trust parents place in early childhood centres to provide children with rich learning experiences ABDULLA AL KARAM
Director general of Dubai KHDA