Local Distinguished School Award

A distinguished school is an educational institution where the students achieve distinguished academic and behavioral results at the local and international levels beyond the expectations of the stakeholders due to applying an efficient and effective corporate governance system. The distinguished school is being managed according to the best practices and innovative methods, and focuses on achieving distinguished key performance results. It adopts modern and innovative technologies and methods and manages its technical and smart services effectively and progressively.

Applications openApplications open until 15 January 2027.

2027 Local and GCC Educational Awards

Educational Awards

Applications open

Opens1 Oct 2026
Closes15 Jan 2027
JudgingFeb – Apr
Ceremony20 May

Applications open until 15 January 2027.

Apply now

Award links

Participation Guide
Workshop on award criteria
Annual calendar
Q&A Session for Participants

Award domain

The United Arab Emirates Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

Conditions of Application

The applicant for the award must meet the following conditions:

General conditions7

A school is eligible to apply for the Award if it receives a grade of “Good” (Meets Expectations) or higher by the official school evaluation authorities.
The school may apply for the award annually, but previous winners are not eligible to reapply.
The application shall be submitted in the school’s name, not its administrative body.
A multi-stage school may apply for the award, provided that it is housed in a unified premesis and managed by a unified administration.
A multi-cycle school may apply for the award representing only one educational cycle if it has a separate premesis and separate administration.
A school is eligible to apply for the award provided that it had been established no less than four years ago, including the year of application.
An eligible school shall file its Award application within the dates preset by the Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Distinguished Academic Performance.

Special conditions for GCC Countries schools, (in addition to the general conditions):1

The candidate school must be governmental and supervised by the Ministry of Education in the participating country.

Special conditions for private schools in the United Arab Emirates, (in addition to the general conditions):1

Multi-Campus private schools carrying the same name may submit “independent” applications provided that the name of the particular campus is specified.

Incentives and Rewards

The winning school will be awarded a financial prize of AED 100,000, along with a certificate of appreciation, an excellence trophy, and attendance at the award ceremony. Additionally, they will have the opportunity to participate in a training program .
The prize will be distributed equally, with 50% allocated to the school fund and 50% to the members of the team who prepared the winning school's files.

Inquiries

For any further inquiries, kindly send an email to: (Askme@ha.ae)

Educational Awards

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