GEMS Education's Dino Varkey On Legacy Vs. Innovation
"You have to focus on the future just as you need to focus on tradition.”
In his role as the Group CEO of the UAE-based GEMS Education, Dino Varkey represents the third generation of a family that’s been committed to providing quality education for over 60 years.
His grandparents, K. S. and Mariamma Varkey, were teachers who moved from India to the UAE in 1959, and their legacy has since been carried forward by their son, Sunny Varkey, through his establishment of GEMS Education (which is one of the largest private education providers in the world today), and now, by their grandson. And while the enterprise proudly states it educates 200,000 students from over 176 countries, Dino believes its true impact lies in something far deeper than numbers.
“Beyond anything that we do tangibly, whether it’s the academic outcomes of our kids, or the universities that they end up going to, the most important thing for us is to inculcate the right values in our young people,” he told Inc. Arabia on the sidelines of the 2025 edition of the Abu Dhabi based event, Investopia. “Because it’s these values that will give our young people the right frameworks to make the right choices in a rapidly changing world.”
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But Dino also says that the education domain is in desperate need of innovation. “The reality is that the nature of our sector is still a relic of the industrial age,” he pointed out. “Our curricula – it’s certainly not future relevant, and it’s not fit for purpose. So, there needs to be a radical reform of the curriculum. There also needs to be a radical reform of assessments. If you think about the type of tests and exams we do, it still tests the quality of the answer. But given the rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning, answers are now just so easily and ubiquitously available. So, we need to change our assessments so that we’re actually testing the quality of the question, not the quality of the answer.”
But then, how does Dino reconcile the need for reform with a legacy built on tradition? “For me, it’s not really a balancing act,” he replied. “It’s just things that you need to do equally and equitably. You have to focus on the future just as you need to focus on tradition.”
Pictured in the lead image is GEMS Education Group CEO Dino Varkey. Image courtesy GEMS Education.
This article first appeared in the March issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.
