Dubai: A Dh53 million funding agreement signed on Wednesday will help transform the UAE’s traditional classes in public schools into smart classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art technology.
The money given by the Information and Communication Fund (ICF), an initiative by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) will help the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Smart Learning Programme in completing this transformation.
The Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Smart Learning Programme which is part of the UAE Vision 2021, aims to shape a new learning environment in public schools through the launch of ‘smart classes’ that will provide every student with an electronic tablet and access to high-speed 4G networks by 2017.
The programme, which was launched in 2012 by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will start its second pilot stage next week. The second pilot aims to perfect the programme before starting the actual roll-out plan at the beginning of the new educational year in September 2013.
“In the first pilot stage we didn’t have knowledge of how we can shape the programme properly so all the feedback from the first pilot stage helped us in designing the second pilot, which will aid us in perfecting the programme when we launch it in September 2013,” Mohammad Gheyath, Director of Mohammad bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme, said.
The second pilot stage will add an additional six schools to the existing eight included in the first pilot. The Dh53 million will go towards integrating 30 classes, 800 students and 80 teachers across eight schools with the programme.
Gheyath added that the new fund will help the programme meet technological and pedagogical requirements. This includes interactive content within the curriculums, student information, its management, smart board interaction with the students’ devices, tablets and the network within each school, the device management system within the classroom and the school.
“The more we try and test the better understanding we have of what suits our requirement as by the end of the year 2016 all schools will be enrolled with the smart learning environment,” said Gheyath.
The agreement was signed by the Minister of Education and President of the Higher Committee for the Smart Learning Programme, Humaid Al Qutami and Mohammad Ahmad Al Qamzi, Chairman of TRA.
Speaking at the event Al Qutami stated: “The funding agreement signed today will enable the ministry and the ICT fund to upgrade the educational system to a globally competitive level by establishing ‘smart schools’ which use the latest technology tools and innovations.”
The actual roll-out in September will first start with 100 schools to hopefully include more than 200,000 students and more than 20,000 teachers by the end of the programme.
The writer is a trainee with Gulf News.
