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For UAE students, the end of the academic year means the start of a long-awaited summer. For their teachers, the picture looks rather different. While the school gates may be closed for close to two months, educators and school leaders across the UAE say a significant part of that time is spent preparing for the year ahead, not relaxing on a beach somewhere.

Not the same thing as a holiday

Rebecca Gray, Director of Education at Taaleem, said teaching remains one of the most rewarding yet demanding professions, and the common perception that teachers enjoy lengthy holidays does not reflect the reality of the job.

While many people associate teaching with long school holidays, she said, the reality is that teachers' annual leave is significantly less than is often assumed. School holiday periods are not the same as teacher holidays, with much of the time before and after each break dedicated to planning, preparation and professional responsibilities.

What actually happens behind the scenes

During the summer break, teachers across UAE schools work behind the scenes to ensure a smooth transition into the next term. Gray explained that educators spend parts of the summer reviewing student performance, developing lessons and attending training programmes, while school leaders manage wider operational responsibilities.

During the summer, she said, many teachers are involved in curriculum planning, reviewing student outcomes, preparing new schemes of work, attending professional development programmes and onboarding new colleagues. School leaders, she added, take on additional responsibilities such as recruitment, strategic planning, safeguarding reviews and ensuring campuses are ready before students return.

For CBSE schools in the UAE, the academic calendar typically includes a summer break of around six to eight weeks and a winter break of two to three weeks. Education leaders are clear, however, that these periods are built into the academic calendar and should not always be viewed as conventional leave.

A persistent and unfair image

Punit MK Vasu, CEO of the Indian High Group of Schools, said the long-standing image of teachers spending summers relaxing by the beach has created an unfair perception of the profession.

The idea that a teaching job comes with long weeks of iced lemonade on the beach in summer and shorter dashes to winter wonderlands, he said, has long been proven wrong. It is a common misconception that teachers are on holiday whenever school is closed.

Vasu argued that the conversation around teaching needs to shift. It is high time, he said, that the spotlight moves away from the leave teachers receive as holidays and toward the 44 weeks of relentless work expected of every educator across a typical academic year. He described education, alongside healthcare, as an essential service because of its impact on society, but noted what sets teaching apart is that the job follows people home. With KHDA school inspections now a regular feature of the school calendar, he said, the expectations and minimum standards for a teacher's deliverables have climbed to incredible heights.

Vasu said teachers continue to face high levels of scrutiny, with evaluations, classroom expectations and academic standards requiring constant preparation. The scrutiny, he said, is constant, the pressure relentless and the evaluation rigorous, and this is something every teacher is very much aware of.

Work that follows teachers home, even in the break

Despite official time off, many teachers voluntarily stay engaged with their work throughout the summer. Vasu said most teachers voluntarily choose to stay academically engaged even during holidays, with many spending one to two hours a day at home, sometimes more, working on student assessments, updating lesson plans, preparing worksheets, reviewing curriculum and planning lessons.

That said, educators stress that holidays are not entirely consumed by work. Many teachers use the break to spend time with family, recharge and pursue personal interests, alongside any voluntary professional learning they choose to take on.

Schools building in genuine rest

Not every school takes the same approach, and some are actively working to protect teachers' downtime rather than let it be quietly eroded by informal expectations.

Noufal Ahmed, Founder and Managing Director of Woodlem Education, said teachers need time to rest and reconnect with their personal lives in order to return energised for the classroom. When people look at the teaching profession, he said, they often perceive the summer break as an extended holiday. In reality, this time is far more significant. It serves as an essential opportunity for rest, reflection, personal wellbeing and rejuvenation.

Ahmed said his school deliberately avoids assigning routine academic responsibilities during the summer break, allowing educators to focus on their wellbeing. The school consciously refrains, he said, from engaging teachers in lesson planning, routine academic responsibilities or school-related tasks during this period. At the same time, the school encourages continuous professional growth through flexible, self-paced learning modules that educators can pursue at their own convenience.

The underlying belief, he said, is straightforward: refreshed teachers create stronger learning environments for students. When teachers return refreshed, empowered and motivated, they bring renewed creativity, passion and excellence into the classroom.

What this means for UAE families

For UAE parents, the perception gap matters for a simple reason. Teaching quality, classroom continuity and staff retention all connect directly to how well schools protect and support their teachers, including during the periods when students are not on campus. A school that quietly demands informal summer labour from its teaching staff is investing differently in its people than a school like Woodlem, which deliberately ring-fences rest as part of its wellbeing strategy.

This also connects to a wider theme in UAE education this year. Recent research from Nord Anglia's Permission to Play Report found that most UAE parents feel guilty about unproductive time, even though they recognise its value for wellbeing. The same tension applies to teachers. A profession that is expected to be constantly available, constantly evaluated and constantly improving needs genuine downtime built in, not just holidays on paper.

For families evaluating schools, it is worth asking a simple question during admissions conversations: how does the school support its teachers during the break, and how does it protect their time to rest? The answer says something meaningful about the working culture behind the classroom door, and by extension, about the consistency and quality of teaching a child is likely to experience across the year.

The bigger picture

The perception that teachers get two months of uninterrupted holiday is, according to the educators quoted here, simply out of step with reality. Curriculum planning, professional development, safeguarding reviews, recruitment, onboarding, campus preparation and voluntary self-directed learning all continue quietly through the break. For many teachers, genuine rest has to be actively protected, either by the individual or, in the best cases, by a school culture that builds it in deliberately.

For UAE families about to enjoy the last stretch of summer with their children, it is worth remembering that the teachers who will welcome those children back in a few weeks have, in many cases, spent a good part of the break working to make that return as smooth as possible.

Sources:

Khaleej Times, "Think UAE teachers get the summer off? What 2-month holiday looks like for educators" by Nandini Sircar (July 13, 2026). https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/education/uae-teachers-summer-holidays-vacation-educators-explain-break