In Dubai, "the French lycée" actually means three schools, which differ in price and in the way they rank applications. The Lycée Français International Georges Pompidou (LFIGP) has about 2,600 pupils on two sites. The Lycée Français International de l'AFLEC, part of the Mission laïque française network, is the largest, with 3,233 pupils according to the AEFE directory. The Lycée Français Jean Mermoz opened in Al Quoz in 2017 and has 1,513, and a second campus, Jean Mermoz South, opened in Al Barsha South in 2024. All are AEFE partner schools: private schools accredited by the French Ministry of Education, teaching the French national curriculum up to the French baccalaureate. And all answer first to the KHDA, the authority that regulates Dubai's private schools and oversees their fees.
The wider choice between French, British and IB schools is covered in which school to choose in Dubai. This page stays with the French schools, one by one.
Fees, year by year
The figures below are the annual tuition fees published on each school's KHDA page, consulted in October 2026. For the LFIGP they match the school's own 2026-2027 fee sheets, which note that it asked not to raise fees that year. French year groups are given with their US grade.
| Year | Georges Pompidou | AFLEC, Oud Metha | Jean Mermoz, Al Quoz |
|---|---|---|---|
| Petite section (age 3) | AED 31,276 | AED 29,488 | AED 39,789 |
| CP (Grade 1) | AED 36,920 | AED 35,385 | AED 47,526 |
| Sixième (Grade 6) | AED 46,695 | AED 41,806 | AED 55,262 |
| Troisième (Grade 9) | AED 46,695 | AED 47,509 | AED 61,893 |
| Seconde (Grade 10) | AED 50,700 | AED 59,388 | AED 64,104 |
| Terminale (Grade 12) | AED 50,700 | AED 62,363 | AED 68,525 |
Three gaps stand out. The LFIGP is by far the cheapest in high school: the final year costs almost AED 18,000 less than at Jean Mermoz. The AFLEC jumps sharply between Grade 9 and Grade 10, by nearly AED 12,000. Jean Mermoz rises every single year. A family arriving with a child in middle school should work out the high-school bill now rather than discover it three years later. Converted to euros, LFIGP's seconde fees sit in the middle of the nine French schools I compare in my guide to French schools abroad, between Bangkok and London.
The two new campuses sit in another bracket. Jean Mermoz South charges AED 45,000 for the youngest class, at age 3, and AED 72,000 for Grade 11. The AFLEC has opened a nursery and primary site in Mudon at AED 65,000 for the age-3 class and AED 80,000 from Grade 1 to Grade 5, more than double its original campus.
On top of tuition come costs the LFIGP's KHDA sheet lists for Grade 10: transport at AED 4,993 to 8,527 a year, uniform, books, a laptop. For lunches, lepetitjournal.com, the French expat news site, found AED 28 a meal at the LFIGP and AED 24 at the AFLEC, a cost it says families with several children tend to underestimate.
What the inspections say
The KHDA inspects schools and publishes an overall rating on a scale from Very weak to Outstanding. The latest published ratings come from the 2023-2024 inspection.
I read these ratings with care. Dubai's inspection also covers Arabic, Islamic education and wellbeing, and a French school can lose a grade on those without any effect on how well it teaches maths or French. The subject-by-subject detail in the report tells you more than the headline.
How the LFIGP ranks applications
The LFIGP publishes a detailed admissions policy, which is unusual, and one sentence in it deserves a slow read: applications are ranked in order of arrival, by date and time. Campaigns open in the autumn on a day and hour announced in advance. For popular year groups, applying that evening or three weeks later is not the same thing.
That ranking applies within five categories, in this order:
- Emirati nationals;
- children of school staff;
- siblings of current pupils;
- pupils coming from a French school or the AEFE network;
- pupils from any other curriculum.
So a French child coming from a British school in London queues behind one coming from the French lycée in Singapore. At schools run directly by the AEFE, French nationality comes first; that difference between school types is explained in enrolling in a French school abroad.
The rest of the policy is short. A placement test or interview may be required from Grade 1, charged at AED 300. Once accepted, the family confirms the place by paying AED 500 in admission fees and 10% of annual tuition, non-refundable but deducted from the first term. A waiting list opens when applications exceed places, with no guarantee. And entry into terminale, the final year, is limited to pupils who did an accredited première, the year before.
AFLEC and Jean Mermoz
At the AFLEC, the application is filed online with a fee of AED 500 per child, then goes to an admissions committee. For pupils not coming from an accredited French school, assessment is systematic: a short video made by the parents for the youngest, tests from Grade 1. Enrolment is confirmed only once the requested fees are paid. The school mentions neither a priority order nor a waiting list.
Jean Mermoz's website was down in October 2026, so I could not read its admissions policy. Ask for it in writing, with its ranking criteria, before you apply. One point can be checked in the AEFE directory, and it matters: at Jean Mermoz South, only the years from age 3 to Grade 5 are accredited. Middle and high school are not, yet. A child who may move back to France or to another French school should know this before enrolling: accreditation is what allows a move to another network school without an entrance exam.
Two Dubai rules that catch French families out
The first is about age. From the 2026-2027 school year, the UAE authorities place new pupils by calendar year of birth, with 31 December as the cut-off, as the French system does. Pupils already enrolled before that year are not affected.
The second is less obvious. The AFLEC asks parents of children born between 1 September and 31 December to sign a waiver: if the child later moves to an American or British school in the UAE, they will have to repeat a year. It applies from the age-3 class to Grade 1. A family thinking of switching to the British system in two years should know this before choosing.
Example: the campaign for September 2027.
At the LFIGP, applications for 2027-2028 opened on 8 October 2026 at noon, on the Eduka platform. Visits are compulsory and by appointment, on Thursdays: 3:30 pm for the Oud Metha nursery, 9:45 am for primary and 8:45 am for secondary at Academic City. Re-enrolment for current pupils is announced for March 2027.
Which one
Often the map decides. Oud Metha is in the heart of the city, Academic City far inland, Al Quoz and Al Barsha South to the west, and the LFIGP school bus costs up to AED 8,527 a year. With journeys equal, I look at three things. The price of high school, from AED 50,700 to 72,000 a year depending on the school. Whether each year group is accredited, if the child is joining in middle school. And for a pupil aiming at a selective university or a French prépa, the maths detail of the inspection reports, where all three schools do well.
The LFIGP offers the BFI, the international option of the French baccalaureate, in bilingual and trilingual versions in the last two years, with a British international section from Grade 6 to Grade 10. If the choice is between that and the IB at an international school, the arguments are in BFI or IB.
At Carmine we help around twenty families a year choose a school, keep to an application timetable that in Dubai can come down to the hour, and prepare for the placement test. The page School admissions describes how we work.