Ministry to re-write public schools’ curriculum

Dubai: The curriculum of all public schools in the UAE will be changed by 2018-19, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of education said on Sunday at the Microsoft in Education Global forum.

Marwan Ahmad Al Sawaleh, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, revealed that the curriculums will be changed completely to promote innovation. “The ministry is going to re-write the curriculums to encourage innovation as one of its core values. As part of this change, innovation will also become a criterion in annual school evaluations to encourage schools to teach it in schools,” he said.

The move towards promoting innovation came after an announcement by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, at the Government summit.

Shaikh Mansour said the government will be focusing on this aspect as part of its national agenda through the launch of seven new initiatives.

These initiatives include the launch of robot labs in schools and universities, developing a curriculum that promotes innovation, making innovation part of school’s evaluations, launching an annual national innovation exhibition, launching innovation incubators in schools, discovering future innovators from the age of five to seven and, finally, creating extensive training summer camps for innovative youth.

The ministry announced on Sunday that the Minister of Education, Hussain Bin Ebrahim Al Hammadi met with 120 curriculum, training and evaluation experts to implement these initiatives as soon as possible.

During the event, Sawaleh said Microsoft will partner with the ministry to fulfil the ministry’s goals, especially when it comes to implementing the Mohammad Bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme.

Samer Abu Lteif, Microsoft Regional General Manager, Gulf Region, commended the country’s progress in integrating technology and its recent push towards innovation in education.

“Innovation teaching is important because it fosters creative thinking, it embraces collaborative learning and it cultivates skilled communication,” he said.