In recent years, the Emirate of Dubai has been placing a stronger emphasis on people’s well-being with the aim of making Dubai “an inclusive and cohesive society (...) that is the preferred place to live, work and visit and a pivotal hub in the global economy”. Within the education sector, KHDA and private schools have introduced a number of initiatives to help raise awareness, measure and support students’ and staff’s well-being.

This joint UNESCO-NWCPEA Project comprised a World-wide physical education survey to inform the development of benchmark indicators on Quality Physical Education (QPE) in schools and Quality Physical Education Teacher Education/Training (QPETE/T) in provider institutions as well as principles of a physical education basic needs model. The survey adopted a multi-method/pluralistic approach to data generation from a range of sources including a specifically designed structured survey questionnaire translated into officially used UNESCO and several other languages seeking quantitative and qualitative data, as well as information derived from recent and current international, continental regional and national physical education-related studies.