5 reasons to choose online schooling for ex-pats living in the Middle East

If you are an ex-pat living in the Middle East with kids who are of school-going age, you should do some research on the educational options in the region. It is important to factor in your child’s education at international schools in the Middle East.

Expat children can attend either public or private schools but are supposed to pay fees for both. Unlike Emirati and other Gulf country nationals, they cannot attend government schools for free.

But we have some good news for you. There is no dearth of good schools in the Middle East. In fact, you will find some of the best schools in the world in the Gulf countries.

However, the structure does have its quirks. For example, Arab government schools still practice gender segregation and keep male and female students in different classes and they follow different schedules.

As an expatriate in a Middle Eastern country, you might also wish for your child to have an education that values his/her own culture and language. Some private schools in the Middle East offer a well-rounded foreign language education to that effect.

But, if you are considering a more hands-on approach to the way your child’s education is designed, you should consider online school as an option.

Over the past few years, we have made great strides in online schooling education design and delivery. If you get premium-quality educational resources, skilled instructors, and reasonable prices in your child’s online school, wouldn’t it be highly preferable?

Below, we have enumerated 5 advantages of online schooling:

Flexibility & Accessibility

Expat families often need flexibility. Many parents have jobs that require frequent travel or relocations. In such a situation, changing your child’s schools at such frequent intervals can be highly disruptive to the learning process and even his/her mental health as he/she might struggle to adjust to new surroundings.

Our Online school curriculum provides flexibility in terms of the study schedules: most class recordings and assignments can be accessed on the online portals at any time.

Being location-agnostic, online schooling can be a game-changer for parents who find themselves on the road quite a lot. This is also a crucial age for them to develop social competency skills, so some stability in their peer interactions is appreciated.

Studying at an online school could bring them predictability and a routine. It can also give them access to a community of peers with whom they can regularly interact.

In terms of costs too, online school fees are much less than the private education fees in the Middle East for ex-pats.

Customized and personalized learning experience

Our learning curriculum also allows for a personalized learning experience, following the needs, learning styles and aptitude of the students. What if your child’s school experience could be customized concerning academics, socio-emotional learning and skill development?

Online learning tools make use of technology and can provide a highly customized experience; everything from the modules, learning mode, worksheets to assessments are built to suit the learning style of a student.

The learning journey is optimized to suit the needs of the student, which can be helpful for ex-pats who want their kids to learn their mother tongue or know their culture. There are several permutations and combinations of modules that can be chosen to meet the requirements of school assessment.

Time for the pursuit of hobbies

We’ve learnt by now that the best online schools optimize the learning journey for all students. This frees up time and mental agility that students can use to pursue their hobbies and other recreational or skill development exercises.

This leads to the overall, holistic development of their personality . This also gives them longer memory retention and helps inculcate soft skills.

Accessibility

In our online school system, some lessons happen synchronously, while a big part of the learning also takes place asynchronously.  This improves access for children with special needs too.

It is easier to incorporate sophisticated tech within the online school system, and use accessibility features in the software, tools, and platforms being used. Assistive technologies like Text to Speech and Literacy Support Tools can be incorporated into the very design of an online school curriculum.

At the same time, features like dark mode or text-only mode can help limit the sensory overload that neurodiverse children might face.

Safeguarding of children in education

Children are often a soft target for instances of bullying, alienation, and so on when they come from different cultural backgrounds.

In a traditional setting, they can also feel distant from their peers if their parents move frequently and, as a result, change schools.

Safeguarding refers to a set of policies and practices that help keep children safe. This could mean better cybersecurity provision, strict policies against bullying, and programs for online psychological safety of the learners. 

These can be easily built into the platform of online instruction as well as in the reporting mechanism.

If you are at the stage of making decisions for your child’s schooling in the Middle East, consider the above-mentioned factors to see why online schooling might be better suited to your lifestyle.