KHDA rolls out new background check standards for Dubai teachers

KHDA, Dubai’s education regulator has announced plans to increase the number of background checks on Dubai teachers, to ensure that those with a criminal background cannot slip through the net.

Candidates must now produce a ‘good conduct’ certificate from countries in which they have worked for the past five years, the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) has revealed this week.

This will now be issued as a standard requirement across the school network in order for teachers to pass the necessary employment and visa checks, when previously only individual schools had stipulated their own background checks.

In April, the UAE government suspended plans to require all new residents to present evidence that they had no criminal record from the past five years in order to secure a visa.

Businesses had complained that they were unable to process visas properly, particularly from applicants who had lived in different countries in recent years. They would have been required to contact police forces or authorities in each of those countries and secure documents proving they had no convictions.

But many public sector organisations and private companies continue to stipulate that new employees do so anyway, for their own records.

Brendon Fulton, principal of Dubai British School in Emirates Hills, told local media that some schools – including his own, even require volunteers to secure good conduct certificates from Dubai Police.

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