Schools across the UAE network of education technology platform AssessPrep conducted 24,317 assessments between January and June 2026, compared with 11,932 in the same period in 2025, a 104% increase, as digital assessment becomes a more regular part of teaching and examination workflows.
Student submissions on the platform also rose during the period, increasing 69% to 266,410 from 157,207 the year before.
AssessPrep currently works with 26 schools in the UAE, among them 21 schools following the International Baccalaureate curriculum and five offering American curricula, making the country its largest market in a wider network of 39 GCC schools.
The rise was not simply the result of AssessPrep adding new schools. Among the 17 UAE schools that used the platform in both periods, the number of assessments created grew 24%, from 11,758 in the first half of 2025 to 14,600 in the same period this year.
Between April and June, usage across the same group of 17 schools was up 37% year-on-year, with assessments rising from 5,704 to 7,838.
The growth comes as the UAE’s assessment and education systems place greater weight on continuous evaluation, data and technology. The Ministry of Education’s Student Assessment Policy Guide for the 2026-27 academic year sets out the approved framework for continuous, school-based and centralised assessment across school levels, and is intended to help teachers and school leaders use data to improve teaching, track student progress and strengthen outcomes.
AI is also increasingly part of the broader education debate in the UAE. In Abu Dhabi, the Department of Education and Knowledge is rolling out its AI Literacy initiative to more than 170 private schools, covering teacher training and guidance on incorporating AI into lessons.
For schools, this marks a shift in how digital assessment is used, from simply moving exams online to applying technology across the whole assessment process, including creating and running assessments, grading, feedback and analysing student performance.
At Fairgreen International School in Dubai, teachers are using AI tools to speed up the preparation of feedback for students. “Teachers can use the AI feature to produce the feedback in the school format, and that has really cut down on time,” said Shannon Johnson, IB MYP Coordinator and DP History Teacher at Fairgreen International School.
The International Baccalaureate is also preparing to introduce on-screen examinations for Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme students. The IB said in July that the digital examinations will initially mirror existing paper-based assessments, with students taking examinations on laptops or desktop computers within IB schools.
“Assessment is increasingly becoming part of the teaching workflow rather than a separate activity at the end of a learning cycle. The growth we are seeing in the UAE reflects schools using digital assessment more frequently across classrooms, examinations and feedback,” said Karan Gupta, co-founder of AssessPrep.
“AI is adding another layer to this transition by helping teachers reduce repetitive work while giving them more time to focus on interpreting student performance and supporting learning. The objective is not to replace the teacher, but to make the assessment process more useful and manageable for educators,” Gupta added.
AssessPrep says it supports more than 800 schools across 85 countries and has processed more than 5 million student submissions. The platform covers the IB’s MYP and DP, IGCSE, AP, A-Level and more than 600 other international curriculum frameworks, and the company says its AI-enabled tools have helped schools save over one million hours of teacher time.
