- GEMS Education adopts a 'capital-light' expansion strategy through its Global Schools Management model, entering new markets with minimal investment.
- Focus on GCC, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the U.S., with Saudi Arabia a priority due to its education transformation agenda.
- AI integration in education is a key focus, emphasizing creative teaching, ethical use, and developing students’ ability to ask high-quality questions.
GEMS Education is following a 'capital-light' expansion strategy to increase its international footprint, with its Global Schools Management (GSM) business. The strategy permits the UAE-headquartered education firm to enter new markets without much capital expenditure. The CEO Dino Varkey pointed out that the GSM model facilitates rapid growth by providing a complete school management solution, ranging from curriculum planning, staffing, and operational systems.
The firm has already established a school in Saudi Arabia and is looking at opportunities in the GCC, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. Although the UAE is still GEMS's top priority over the next two years, Varkey recognized the significance of neighboring markets within the GCC. He said the group is specifically examining Saudi Arabia, which is 'too important to ignore' with its kingdom's transformation agenda and focus on quality education.
Along with growing its footprint geographically, GEMS Education is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) as an education transformative force. Varkey pointed to AI's ubiquitous influence on the education of the future and said that never has the company's status as a leader in the field been more important. GEMS has set up policies for AI adoption and is rebranding its instruction methods and tests.
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Whereas previously the quality of an answer would be assessed, now attention is being diverted towards testing 'the quality of the questions that our students ask'. It is a reaction to the ability of AI to produce high-quality answers and it renders the skill of asking in-depth questions as more desirable. Group Chief Education Officer, Lisa Crausby OBE, said AI is a 'powerful learning tool'.
She gave the example of a student using AI to produce past exam questions and model answers, which she insisted is all about 'modelling' and 'exam practice' and not cheating. What they want to do is use AI to 'free up time for our teachers to be incredibly creative or intuitive' with their students. GEMS Education is also striving to integrate AI fluency throughout all topics with a focus on ethical application and cultural sensitivity, such as promoting AI education in Arabic.
The company feels that AI has the potential to be a powerful "catalyst and a bridge" to provide at least a minimum level of teaching, particularly considering the over-70-million global shortage of teachers.
