Dubai: The Ministry of Education has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Code.org to advance and broaden computer science education in the UAE.
Dr. Mohamed Ebrahim Almualla, Undersecretary for Academic Affairs at MoE, and Hadi Partovi, CEO and founder of Code.org, signed the MoU at a ceremony held during the MoE’s participation in the World Government Summit 2023 (WGS2023). The signing ceremony was attended by Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of Education, along with senior officials from both parties.
Dr. Al Falasi noted that eradicating digital illiteracy and expanding computer science education to all UAE citizens is one of the key goals of the ministry. Dr. Falasy also mentioned that the ministry is aiming to include computer science in all educational stages, starting from kindergarten, to hone students’ computational thinking skills. The ministry will also improve the digital capabilities of teachers to be effective contributors to building a knowledgeable society and to qualify today’s generation to meet current and future labour market requirements.
بحضور معالي الدكتور أحمد بالهول الفلاسي، وقعت #وزارة_التربية_والتعليم ومنظمة كود مذكرة تفاهم، وذلك بهدف تعزيز تعليم علوم الحاسوب في دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة. pic.twitter.com/3wQuLnArun
— وزارة التربية والتعليم (@MOEUAEofficial) February 21, 2023
The collaboration will focus on four aspects of promoting computer science education in the country. These include raising awareness about the importance of computer science among students, teachers, parents, and various social groups; providing the relevant resources and curriculum with content in the Arabic language; training teachers at all stages and ensuring their competence in teaching computer science; in addition to allocating time for computer science during and after school hours.
During WGS2023, the MoE announced that the UAE was one of the first countries in the world to begin charting a path for embedding AI tools across its education system. This is by integrating GPT-powered AI tutors into the education system, in partnership with Microsoft OpenAI.