Testing in Dubai

For the academic year 2023-24, to align with KHDA’s ‘External Benchmark Assessments Requirements’, all private schools in Dubai should be using a curriculum-specific assessment, along with cognitive ability tests and reading skills tests. These requirements have been developed to ‘support schools with their whole school self-evaluation and improvement planning; and facilitate KHDA’s role in monitoring and quality assurance of schools.’

The recommended components supplied by GL Education are:

• Reading skills - NGRT - To be carried out 3 times in the academic year
• Potential to learn - CAT4 

Academic achievement - PT Series 

The 3 testing windows for this year’s literacy testing are 28th August to 20th October 2023, 2nd January to 9th February 2023, and 15th April to 31st May 2023.

The KHDA expects schools to test all Grades/Years from Grade 1/Year 2 up to Grade 9/Year 10.

Testing should be carried out using Form A in the first testing window, Form B in the second, and Form C in the third.

Further information regarding NGRT can be found here.

The testing window for this year’s ability testing is from 28th August to 17th November 2023. 

The KHDA expect schools to test students from the following Grades/Years: 

Grades 3, 5, 7 and 9 or  Years 4, 6, 8 and 10. 

New schools that have not previously tested with CAT4 are advised to test all their students from grade 3 - 9 (years 4 - 10). 

Schools that use CAT4 are eligible to use GL Education’s Value-Added service, at no additional cost. Find out more here.

Refer to the table below to identify the appropriate test level for each grade/year.

At the end of academic year 2023-24, students should be tested with the appropriate test for that grade / year. This will allow progress to be measured for the full academic year. Testing should take place between 29th April and 28th June 2024.

KHDA expect all students in Grades 3 - 9 (Years 4 - 10) take the Progress Test Series in mathematics, science, and English in May - June 2022.

Our Progress Tests in maths, English and science are available for schools following UK, IB, Pakistani, Canadian, and Philippine curriculums.

Refer to the table below to identify the appropriate test for each Grade / Year

During registration, schools must clearly identify all Emirati students. Click here for further guidance on how to achieve this on the Testwise platform.

Please see the video below for guidance on updating your student records. 

Email [email protected] with your testing requirements.