Sharjah’s push to embed education within sustainable urban communities has gained fresh momentum after the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority signed an agreement with SANAM Group to develop a new K-12 school in Sharjah Sustainable City.The project carries an expected investment value of up to $50 million over the coming years and will be built on a 29,275-square-metre plot owned by Shurooq in Sharjah Sustainable City, in the Um Fanain and Al Ruqa Al Hamra area. The school will follow the American curriculum and is planned to accommodate about 2,435 pupils from kindergarten to Grade 12 under a 35-year agreement.
The agreement was signed by Yousif Al Mutawa, Chief Real Estate Officer of Shurooq, and Dr Sulaiman Tareq Al Abduljader, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SANAM Group. The partnership brings together a government-backed development authority seeking to activate strategic land assets and a private education investor positioning itself for long-term growth across the Gulf.
The planned campus is designed to serve families living in Sharjah Sustainable City and nearby communities, reducing travel time for pupils while strengthening the residential project’s appeal as an integrated neighbourhood. For Shurooq, the school adds a core social-infrastructure component to a development built around sustainability, family living and community services.
Al Mutawa said education was “one of the most important components of a complete residential community”, adding that the school would support families, improve quality of life and contribute to a more connected and liveable environment. He said the project also showed Sharjah’s ability to attract serious investment into sectors linked to human development, community growth and sustainable urban planning.
Dr Al Abduljader described the agreement as a strategic step in SANAM Group’s long-term vision for sustainable education investments across the Gulf. He said Sharjah’s position in sustainable urban and educational development made it a suitable destination for a project of this scale.
The school is expected to include modern classrooms, science laboratories, information technology facilities, robotics, engineering and mathematics labs, maker and innovation spaces, and three libraries serving kindergarten, primary and upper-school stages. Plans also include open learning hubs, arts studios, a black box theatre and a 500-seat multipurpose hall, indicating a campus model aimed at combining academic instruction with creativity, performance and collaborative learning.
The kindergarten section is planned as a separate area with its own entrance, reception, security procedures and direct access to secure outdoor play areas. The wider campus will include a learning-support centre with therapy and sensory-integration rooms, counselling offices, and separate clinics for boys, girls and isolation cases.
Sports and wellbeing facilities are expected to include an indoor sports hall, activity studio, football pitch, outdoor courts, a main swimming pool, a learner pool, rooftop recreation areas and a healthy cafeteria. Green spaces, a botanical garden, internal courtyards, informal seating areas, play zones and shaded pedestrian walkways are also part of the concept.
The agreement comes as Sharjah’s private education sector continues to expand on the back of population growth, expatriate demand and rising interest from institutional investors. The emirate’s private-school system includes more than 130 schools, with more than 200,000 pupils enrolled across 10 curricula. Independent market analysis has placed Sharjah’s wider K-12 enrolment at around 251,000 pupils, with private schools accounting for about 83 per cent of the market.
That demand has encouraged new investment in schools offering international curricula, particularly in master-planned communities where families expect education, retail, leisure and healthcare facilities to be available close to home. The American curriculum remains one of the major options in the UAE’s private-school market, serving families seeking pathways to universities in North America and other international destinations.
Sharjah Sustainable City has been developed as one of the emirate’s flagship environmentally focused communities, with residential units, renewable-energy features, water-saving systems, green spaces and community facilities forming part of its identity. The addition of a K-12 school fits a broader development pattern across the UAE, where education providers are increasingly tied to residential expansion, infrastructure planning and quality-of-life targets.
For SANAM Group, the project offers access to a growing education market with strong family demand and a regulatory environment that has sought to improve school quality while encouraging private-sector participation. For Shurooq, the agreement helps convert land ownership into long-term community value and strengthens the social infrastructure around one of Sharjah’s most visible sustainable-living projects.
Topics
Live News