Online Tutoring in the UAE

Our class times where you are

Weekdays

13:00–21:00 Gulf Standard Time. The after-school block from about 15:00 to 20:00 GST sits squarely inside it, which is 16:00–21:00 PKT for us.

Weekends

09:00–19:00 GST on Saturday and Sunday — the whole day is available rather than a narrow slot.

Our time (Pakistan)

14:00–22:00 PKT · Asia/Karachi

Gulf Standard Time is UTC+4 and the UAE observes no daylight saving, so the one-hour gap to Pakistan never changes. During Ramadan the school day is compressed across the Emirates — the Ministry of Education capped it at five hours for 2026, with 35-minute lessons and private schools finishing by 11:30 on Fridays — so afternoon availability shifts for the month and we re-slot affected students rather than letting sessions lapse.

Curricula we teach

• UK curriculum (National Curriculum for England, IGCSE and A Level) — 37% of Dubai private-school students in 2024–25, the largest single share
• Indian curriculum, mainly CBSE — 26% of Dubai private-school students
• US curriculum including Advanced Placement — 14%, and the most common choice among Emirati families in private schools
• International Baccalaureate (PYP, MYP and Diploma) — 7%, with a further 4% in UK/IB hybrid schools
• UAE Ministry of Education national curriculum — all public schools and a share of private schools; Arabic, Islamic Education and Social & Moral Studies are mandatory in every private school
• Pakistani national curriculum (FBISE) at community schools, including Pakistan Islamia Higher Secondary School in Sharjah

Exams students sit here

• IGCSE, GCSE and AS/A Level (Cambridge International, Pearson Edexcel, Oxford AQA) — May/June main series, October/November second series
• CBSE Class 10 and Class 12 board examinations — February to April, results in May
• IB Diploma Programme examinations — May session
• Advanced Placement — early to mid May
• MoE General Secondary Education Certificate — end of Grade 12, typically May to June

01

One hour, and it never moves

The UAE is the simplest conversion we publish. Subtract one hour from any time on our timetable and that is the local time in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman and Ras Al Khaimah. Neither country observes daylight saving, so the answer is the same in December and in July.

In practice that means the whole of a UAE family's after-school evening is inside our teaching day, rather than a ninety-minute window at the end of it. A 17:00 GST class is 18:00 PKT for the tutor — an ordinary working hour on both sides.

• 14:00 PKT = 13:00 GST
• 18:00 PKT = 17:00 GST — the most-booked Emirates slot
• 22:00 PKT = 21:00 GST
• Weekends: 10:00–20:00 PKT = 09:00–19:00 GST

02

Seventeen curricula in one city

Dubai alone licenses seventeen curricula. UK-curriculum schools hold the largest share at 37% of private-school students, followed by Indian at 26%, American at 14% and the IB at 7%, with a further 4% in UK/IB hybrid schools. The remainder run French, Filipino, Iranian, German, Japanese, Russian and other national systems.

That mix is the reason we ask which curriculum a student is on before which grade they are in. A Year 10 on Edexcel IGCSE and a Grade 10 on CBSE are the same age and are being examined on different mathematics, in different terms, with different notation.

03

EmSAT is no longer a university requirement

On 3 November 2024 the UAE cancelled EmSAT as a university-admission requirement with immediate effect. Universities now set their own admission criteria, and medical and engineering programmes weight relevant science subject grades rather than an overall percentage.

We mention this because EmSAT preparation is still advertised. If a family has been told their Grade 12 student needs it, the first thing worth doing is confirming the requirement with the specific university, not booking lessons for it.

04

Four exam seasons, not one

The UAE school year runs late August to early July under a unified Ministry of Education calendar that applies to public and private schools alike, with a four-week winter break and a two-week spring break. But the examinations inside it belong to four different systems.

CBSE candidates sit in February to April. IGCSE, GCSE and A Level candidates sit the main series in May and June, with a second series in October and November. AP and IB candidates sit in May. A tutoring plan that treats the UAE as one calendar will be six weeks out for someone.

• February–April — CBSE Class 10 and Class 12
• May — Advanced Placement and the IB Diploma session
• May/June — IGCSE, GCSE and AS/A Level main series
• October/November — IGCSE, GCSE and A Level second series

05

How we work with UAE families

Most of our Emirates work is Cambridge IGCSE Mathematics 0580 and 0980, Edexcel and AQA GCSE Mathematics, and SAT preparation for students applying to US and UK universities. International-curriculum support runs one-to-one, at 60 minutes, two to five times a week.

The Extended-versus-Core decision on 0580 is where we spend the first weeks with a new IGCSE student. Core is capped at grade C, so a student who needs an A or a B has to be entered for Extended — and that decision is made at entry, not in the exam hall.