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For UAE families, the summer break is the longest stretch of the year when children are away from formal schooling. With the academic year wrapping up in the first week of July and schools not reopening until late August, students will be out of the classroom for the better part of eight weeks. That extended pause delivers genuine rest, family time and travel, but it also opens the door to what educators call the summer slide, the documented loss of academic progress that can happen when children step entirely away from learning.

UAE school leaders are now warning openly about the risk, and pointing to fresh international data on how big the slide can be. The good news for parents is that the fixes are practical, low-pressure, and largely free.

What the latest research actually shows

The most recent reference points come from NWEA, the US-based research organisation behind MAP Growth, one of the most widely used standardised progress assessments in international schools, including many across Dubai and the wider UAE.

According to NWEA's 2025 MAP Growth norms, the average student's mathematics score drops by between two and seven RIT points over the summer, with the biggest declines in elementary school grades. In practical terms, those declines are roughly equivalent to 10 to 30 per cent of what students learn in a typical school year. Reading shows a different pattern. On average, students' reading scores are essentially unchanged between spring and fall, with less than one RIT point of difference, but this national average hides important variation: a meaningful subset of students do lose ground in reading too, particularly those who do not read at all during the break.

UAE coverage in Khaleej Times cited the same broad findings, noting that children can lose 20 to 30 per cent of their learning over the summer break, with maths skills particularly vulnerable and an average dip of up to 2.6 months of learning over six weeks. Crucially, educators told the paper that this loss is not always immediately visible. It can accumulate quietly over years, so that by middle school some students sit as much as two years behind where they would otherwise be.

For UAE parents, the practical implication is simple: maths is where the summer slide hits hardest, reading is where it can quietly take hold if no one is paying attention, and a small, consistent effort during the break makes a measurable difference.

What UAE school leaders are saying

The Khaleej Times piece is most useful for the perspectives of school leaders, several of whom take a notably non-anxious tone. The consistent message is that summer learning should look nothing like school, and that it works best when it is embedded into everyday life rather than imposed as formal study.

Dr Funke Baffour-Awuah, Vice President for Culture of Excellence at GEMS Education, made the point bluntly. The moment we talk about retaining academic skills, she said, we immediately place the burden on children, and often in the wrong way. Summer should not be a diluted version of school, but it should be a time of intentional, joyful learning. Her advice to parents is to embed learning into life, not into worksheets. Read together with books your child actually wants to read. Visit a museum and ask questions to spark curiosity rather than to find answers. Cook a meal and talk about measurements, chemistry and culture all at once.

She also warned against the opposite extreme. In our anxiety about learning loss, she said, we risk something equally serious, rest loss. Summer is, for many children, the only extended period in which they can genuinely regulate, reset and recover. Her suggested rhythm is mornings with purpose, afternoons with freedom: gentle structure rather than rigid scheduling, and a deliberate avoidance of summers so packed with tutoring and programmes that children arrive in September exhausted.

Dr John Robert Brown, Director of Education at Woodlem Education, encouraged parents to think about summer as a window for experiential learning. Many holiday experiences can be connected with academics, he said. There are unlimited opportunities in the real world to apply geometry, statistics and even algebra. He also urged parents to limit online time and get children outside as much as possible, pushing back against the tendency to keep children in virtual, risk-free environments. Children learn important lessons about collaboration, competition, fairness, perseverance and health on playgrounds and playing fields.

Pretty Khosla, Principal at The Apple International Community School, made the case for consistency over intensity. Even 15 to 20 minutes of purposeful learning each day, she said, can help students retain essential skills. The objective is not to increase academic pressure, but to maintain engagement, curiosity and a love for learning. From cooking and budgeting to volunteering and short internships, she said summer is also a chance to build confidence, communication, teamwork, adaptability, empathy and social responsibility.

Stephen Brecken, Principal and CEO of GEMS Cambridge International School Dubai, has previously underscored the role of small daily reading habits. Students at his school are encouraged to read for a minimum of 30 minutes daily during the break, and to use digital platforms to keep core subjects ticking over.

Why maths slides more than reading

The reason maths takes a bigger hit than reading over the summer is structural, not accidental. Reading happens almost everywhere: on signs, screens, menus, in conversations, in stories at bedtime. Children who read for pleasure are, in effect, practising the skill without thinking about it. Maths is different. Without deliberate exposure, the algorithms, number facts, fraction skills and problem-solving routines that students build during the year quietly fade.

That is why the most effective summer routines for UAE families tend to mix the two. A 15-minute daily reading habit prevents reading slippage and supports vocabulary, comprehension and writing for the year ahead. A second 15-minute slot focused on practical maths, mental arithmetic during shopping, measurement in cooking, simple budgeting on a family day out, anchors number skills in real life without making it feel like school.

A practical UAE summer plan for parents

Drawing the research and the school leaders' advice together, here is a low-pressure framework that works for most families across the typical eight-week UAE summer break.

The simple daily anchors:

• 15 to 20 minutes of independent reading every day, with the child choosing the book
• 10 to 15 minutes of low-key maths, ideally embedded into everyday life (cooking, shopping, travel)
• One sustained creative or physical activity each day (sport, music, art, building, cooking together)

Once a week, layer in:

• One museum, gallery, library or learning-focused outing
• One project that lasts more than a single sitting (writing a story, building a model, planning a meal, planning a family day)
• One conversation about the wider world (a news story, a country you are visiting, a topic your child is curious about)

What to avoid:

• Worksheet-heavy summers that recreate the school day at home
• Tutoring schedules so full there is no space for free play
• Eight weeks of unlimited screens, which tends to crowd out the very habits (reading, conversation, outdoor play) that protect against the slide

For parents who travel during the break:

• Take physical books with you, and let your child see you reading. Children who see reading model in adults read more themselves.
• Use travel as the maths workout: timezone differences, currency conversion, estimating travel distances, working out tips at restaurants.
• Talk about the geography, history and culture of where you are visiting. Curiosity is the underlying engine of summer learning.

For families staying in the UAE:

• Use the cultural and educational infrastructure the country offers. Museums, science centres, the indoor sports and activity facilities that come into their own during the hottest months, public libraries and reading initiatives all support the summer routine without it feeling like school.
• Build in early-morning outdoor time, before the heat peaks, to anchor physical activity into the day.
• Plan the day with mornings of activity and afternoons of unstructured time, so the structure of the day itself does some of the work.

What schools can do alongside parents

The schools quoted in the Khaleej Times coverage all flagged the same thing: schools and parents work best as a partnership, not as a relay. Some Dubai schools provide reading lists, holiday tasks, online platforms (such as Century Tech, Times Tables Rock Stars and curriculum-aligned reading apps) and gentle summer challenges to keep skills ticking over. For families who appreciate structure, these are well worth asking about at end-of-year parent meetings.

Schools moving students into a new curriculum in September, particularly those joining Year 12 from the CBSE system, often set targeted summer work to bridge any gap. If your child is changing curriculum or moving schools in September, ask the new school what they recommend now, rather than in late August.

What this means for the wider sector

The summer slide is not new, but the way schools are talking about it has shifted. There is less appetite for the older, anxiety-driven view that summer is something to be feared, and more focus on a balanced model. Rest, recovery and family time are treated as protective factors, not threats. Learning is treated as something that lives in conversation, curiosity and everyday life, not only in textbooks. And the data is clearer than it has ever been: the children who do best in September are not the ones who spent the summer doing worksheets, but the ones who kept reading, kept curious, kept moving and kept connected to ideas in low-pressure ways.

For UAE families, the practical takeaway is reassuring. The summer slide is real, but it is preventable. Twenty minutes of reading a day, a handful of mental maths moments built into the everyday, a few well-chosen outings, and time outdoors will do more for a child's September than a stack of holiday workbooks ever will. The aim is not to recreate school during the holidays. It is to keep the mind switched on, gently and joyfully, while the body and the soul get the rest they have earned.

Sources:

Khaleej Times, "UAE schools warn of 'summer slide': What MAP Growth data reveals about learning loss" by Nandini Sircar (June 15, 2026). https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/education/schools-warn-summer-slide-map-growth-data-learning-loss 

Khaleej Times, "UAE: How to prevent 'learning loss' and help kids study during summer holidays" by Nandini Sircar. https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/education/how-to-prevent-learning-loss-in-kids-summer 

NWEA, "What is 'typical' summer slide on MAP Growth?" Teach. Learn. Grow. blog. https://www.nwea.org/blog/2026/what-is-typical-summer-slide-on-map-growth/ 

NWEA, 2025 MAP Growth Norms Technical Manual. https://www.nwea.org/research/publication/2025-map-growth-norms-technical-manual/ 

Dubai Standard, "Summer slide concerns rise in UAE schools, with MAP Growth data showing learning loss trends" (June 15, 2026). https://www.dubaistandard.com/summer-slide-concerns-rise-in-uae-schools-with-map-growth-data-showing-learning-loss-trends/