Global education giant scraps the fixed class schedule

A class schedule almost determines the daily operation order of a school. Now, a global education giant with more than 200,000 students has decided to break this convention.

Recently, GEMS Education, a large global private K-12 education group, has launched a brand-new school model GR8 School in Dubai, planning to cancel the traditional fixed subject-based class schedule, and re-divide students' daily time into three sections: AI adaptive learning, teacher guidance, and practical creation. The first project is expected to be launched in the form of a "school within a school" in January 2027.

From AI entering classrooms to rearranging the daily schedule of schools, educational technology is touching the most basic operating system of traditional schools.

Cancel the Fixed Class Schedule, GEMS Redivides the School Day Into Three Sections

The history of running schools of GEMS Education can be traced back to 1959. It is one of the largest private K-12 education groups in the world, with businesses covering 10 countries and serving more than 200,000 students. The newly launched GR8 School is planned to be launched in the form of a "school within a school" on an existing campus in Dubai in January 2027, taking the lead in testing the new teaching model.

According to the plan announced by GEMS, GR8 School cancels the traditional fixed class schedule divided by subjects, and rearranges the daily learning into three sections: AI adaptive learning, teacher guidance, and practical creation.

First, AI adaptive learning: students no longer follow a unified progress.

Traditional schools usually formulate teaching plans according to classes, and students are required to follow the unified course progress regardless of their mastery level. GR8 School plans to use an AI adaptive learning system to dynamically adjust the learning content of core subjects based on students' knowledge base, learning performance and mastery status.

After students complete learning tasks, the system can adjust subsequent content according to their performance. There is no need to repeatedly learn knowledge that has been mastered, while knowledge that has not been understood will be continuously consolidated through targeted exercises and feedback. Different students can learn different content at the same time, and are no longer completely restricted by the unified progress of the class.

Under this arrangement, AI will undertake part of the work of knowledge explanation, exercise feedback and learning analysis. Core subjects such as mathematics, language and science are still retained, but the learning process is more determined by individual mastery status.

Second, 90 minutes to 2 hours of teacher guidance every day, with the focus shifted to personalized support.

GR8 School will arrange about 90 minutes to 2 hours of teacher-guided learning every day. GEMS positions teachers as "Human Mentors", who are responsible for academic guidance, learning support and student growth.

Teachers can use the learning situation data generated by the AI system to understand students' learning progress, knowledge weaknesses and specific difficulties, and then provide targeted tutoring. In addition to subject knowledge, teachers will also participate in the formulation of learning goals, the cultivation of learning habits and student motivation.

GEMS plans to provide special training for teachers participating in this model, so that they can carry out teaching guidance combined with AI learning data and continue to be responsible for academic quality control. As a result, teachers' work has shifted from focusing on teaching knowledge to the whole class to more targeted learning support, but they have not withdrawn from the teaching of core subjects.

Third, 2 to 3 hours of practical creation every day, and project-based learning has become a daily arrangement.

GR8 School plans to arrange 2 to 3 hours every day for art, sports, project exploration, teamwork and life skill cultivation. Students will carry out practical research, hands-on creation and cooperative tasks in these activities to cultivate abilities of communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving.

To support practical learning, GEMS also proposes to establish a "GR8 Learning Collective" learning community, introducing industry experts and professional practitioners to provide guidance for students together with in-school teachers. External professionals will participate in students' project learning and career exploration around knowledge in different fields and practical work experience.

This arrangement enables practical activities to have dedicated daily learning time, and allows schools to use off-campus professional resources for teaching. Art, sports and project learning no longer only rely on scattered extracurricular activities, but are incorporated into the overall curriculum design of GR8 School.

According to the currently announced plan, GR8 School uses AI for personalized learning of core subjects, retains about 90 minutes to 2 hours of teacher guidance every day, and arranges 2 to 3 hours for practical activities. The three sections together form a new daily learning arrangement, replacing the traditional fixed class schedule of teaching by subject in separate sessions.

From the United States to Dubai, the Exploration of AI Schools is Accelerating

The newly launched GR8 School by GEMS is not the first attempt in the international education industry to break the traditional class schedule. Earlier, Alpha School in the United States has used AI-assisted learning to concentrate core subject learning in about two hours a day, and devote the rest of the time to practical activities. This model has also become one of the most concerned cases of AI schools in recent years.

Alpha School was founded in Austin, Texas, the United States in 2014, adopting a learning system called "2 Hour Learning". Every morning, students complete core subject tasks such as mathematics, reading and science through adaptive learning software, and in the afternoon, they participate in practical courses such as public speaking, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and sports. The school implements mastery-based learning, and students can enter the next stage only after meeting the mastery requirements of corresponding knowledge points.

To support this model, Alpha School uses the TimeBack platform to integrate data from different learning software, and record students' learning progress and knowledge mastery status. The school also sets up learning guides, who are responsible for supervising learning progress, motivating students and organizing practical activities, reducing the proportion of traditional teachers' whole-class teaching.

Alpha School claims that its students can achieve better academic performance than the average level in the United States through two hours of concentrated learning every day. However, the relevant data mainly comes from the school's own disclosure, which is not enough to prove that this model can achieve the same effect in different student groups.

In contrast, although GR8 School also adopts AI adaptive learning, it does not take completing subject learning in two hours a day as the main goal. Instead, it retains a dedicated teacher guidance period, emphasizing the role of professional teachers in academic support and student growth. Both try to reduce unified teaching, but Alpha School highlights the efficiency of subject learning, while GR8 School pays more attention to teacher participation and learning support.

This exploration has also begun to attract more large education groups to participate.

In October 2026, Inspired Education, an international school group, announced the launch of the Edge education model, and plans to open the first school adopting this model in London in September 2027. Edge also emphasizes the use of AI to support personalized learning, and increases the time for practical activities and comprehensive ability cultivation. Just like GR8 School, this project has not been officially opened yet.

As a result, two different exploration paths have emerged in AI schools. One is represented by Alpha School, which is first practiced by new-type schools and then gradually expands the scope of school running; the other is represented by GEMS and Inspired Education, which launches new models by large education groups with mature school networks, and explores new curriculum organization methods in the original school running system.

GEMS' actions are not limited to GR8 School. Just two days before the release of the new model, on October 6, the group announced a cooperation with DataCamp, an online technology learning platform, planning to open course resources such as artificial intelligence, data analysis, Python and SQL to about 60,000 students and 10,000 teachers under its banner, introducing relevant skill training into existing schools.

The DataCamp cooperation focuses on introducing AI and data skill training into existing courses, while GR8 School further explores the use of AI to reorganize teaching arrangements. From Alpha School to GEMS and Inspired Education, the exploration of AI schools is extending from new private schools to large international education groups.

At present, Alpha School has carried out actual teaching, while GR8 School and Edge are still in the preparation stage. Whether the new model can be further promoted depends not only on the teaching effect, but also on the charging positioning and operating cost.

Annual Tuition is Up to About 280,000 RMB, Can the Business Model of AI Schools Be Viable?

Whether GR8 School can be promoted first depends on how much families are willing to pay for this new model.

According to the plan announced by GEMS, GR8 School plans to set different charging levels. The relatively affordable version is expected to charge 8,000 to 10,000 US dollars per year, equivalent to about 57,000 to 71,000 RMB; the high-end version is expected to charge 20,000 to 40,000 US dollars per year, equivalent to about 142,000 to 284,000 RMB. The final price will be determined according to the school and the local market.

From this arrangement, GEMS hopes to cover GR8 School to different consumption levels, rather than only targeting high-net-worth families. For comparison, the annual tuition of some campuses of Alpha School in the United States reaches tens of thousands of US dollars, mainly serving the high-fee private education market. GEMS plans to introduce the new model into a broader international school market through different pricing.

But the premise of reducing charges is that schools can control operating costs.

Teacher salary is an important expenditure for private schools. GR8 School uses AI to undertake part of the work of knowledge explanation, exercise feedback and learning analysis, which may improve teachers' work efficiency and reduce repetitive teaching input. But this does not mean that schools can reduce the number of teachers proportionally. Personalized guidance still requires professional teachers, and practical courses are also inseparable from project organization, venue facilities and external experts.

In addition, the AI system also involves continuous investment such as software authorization, technical maintenance, data security and teacher training. Whether schools can reduce the teaching cost per student through technology depends on whether the saved labor and management expenditure can cover the newly added technology and practical teaching costs.

The startup method chosen by GEMS provides conditions for controlling early investment. The first GR8 School is planned to be implemented in the form of a "school within a school", directly using the venues, facilities and part of the management resources of the existing campus to reduce the early investment required for independent school construction. For GEMS, which already has a transnational school network, it can also share AI systems, curriculum resources and teacher training solutions among different campuses in the future.

However, after the scale of the school expands, the cost will not drop completely in the way of software products. The AI system can serve more students, but teacher guidance, sports and art activities and practical projects still require corresponding manpower and space. In particular, whether the personalized support emphasized by GR8 School can maintain quality after expanding enrollment will directly affect its operational efficiency.

This new teaching arrangement also brings more specific demands to education service enterprises.

The first is the AI adaptive learning system. What schools need is not just an AI tool that can solve problems, but a complete system covering curriculum content, learning tasks, knowledge assessment, progress management and teacher feedback. Technology enterprises need to combine products with school curriculum standards and teaching processes to undertake daily subject teaching tasks.

The second is teacher training. With AI participating in knowledge learning, teachers need to master abilities such as learning situation data analysis, personalized teaching and learning intervention. Relevant training will extend from tool operation to the adjustment of teaching methods and work processes, providing new content for teacher development services.

Practical courses are another demand. GR8 School arranges 2 to 3 hours every day for project learning, art, sports and comprehensive ability cultivation, which requires continuous supply of curriculum content, professional guidance and activity resources. For institutions of science education, quality-oriented education, research practice and career experience, entering the daily school curriculum system means more stable service demand than providing one-time activities, but it also puts forward higher requirements for curriculum quality and delivery capacity.

Sunny Varkey, Founder and Chairman of GEMS Education, said when launching GR8 School that artificial intelligence is changing the way people learn and work, but education cannot just introduce more technology into classrooms. Instead, we should rethink how to design education for young people.

He also emphasized that GR8 School is not suitable for all students and has no intention of becoming a unified education model. Different students have different learning needs, and the school hopes to provide new choices for students who are more adapted to autonomous learning and personalized learning.

According to the plan, the first project will be launched in January 2027, and the charging standard, teacher investment and teaching effect need to be verified in operation.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "Duojing" (ID: DJEDUINNO), Author: Xie Qi, Authorized by 36Kr for release.