Educationists, thought leaders and celebrities from across the world have converged on Dubai at the sixth annual Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF), one of the world’s leading educational events, to discuss new ways for education to transform our world.
Over the course of the next two days, Dubai will see a rich and intensive exchange of ideas on transforming the future of global education. The Forum, organised by the Varkey Foundation, is a major private sector initiative that contributes to Dubai’s growing role as a catalyst for global educational development. Over the last few years, a series of programmes launched by the Government of Dubai have marked the emirate out as a major player in the worldwide education landscape.
The thematic focus of this year’s GESF of preparing young people for the future echoes the aims of several educational initiatives announced by Dubai’s leadership. One of its most ambitious initiatives, the Arab Reading Challenge launched by Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum aims to challenge students across the Arab world to read more books. The largest-ever Arab literacy initiative, the 2017 Arab Reading Challenge saw more than 7.4 million students from 41,000 schools in 25 Arab countries competing, with incentives of over AED 11 million awarded.
In the UAE alone, over 300,000 students completed reading over 50 books as part of the competition. The 100% percent increase in the participation of UAE students alone is an example of the initiative’s success in galvanising youth to actively pursue reading. Teachers and students from across the Arab world testified to the role the Challenge has played in ingraining reading habits deeply among the youth.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid also launched another challenge last year to help provide a free educational platform for 50 million Arab youth. ‘The Translation Challenge’ launched by him invited scientists, researchers and professionals across the Arab world to contribute to the Mohammed bin Rashid Arabic eLearning Project by translating math and science material into Arabic from 5,000 English videos and 11 million words. The translation challenge will help provide content of different subjects, including biology, chemistry, physics, general science and mathematics, to students from kindergarten to grade 12. The online platform is part of His Highness’s vision for ‘reigniting Arab civilisation’.
Quality education for youth is also a strong focus of the global programmes of Dubai Cares, a subsidiary of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI). The organisation is playing a key role in helping achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ensuring inclusive and quality education for all and promoting lifelong learning by 2030. Since its inception, Dubai Cares’ has been working towards providing children and young people in developing countries with access to quality education. Its programmes have reached over 16 million beneficiaries in 45 developing countries.
World-class education is a vital pillar of Dubai’s vision for transforming itself into a knowledge-based society. In 2007, Dubai created the world’s largest free zone dedicated to higher education and the pursuit of intellectual growth – the Dubai International Academic City (DIAC). Home to numerous regional and international colleges and universities, it serves over 24,000 students from all around the world with more than 400 undergraduate and post-graduate programmes. DIAC’s constantly expanding academic community is driving the emirate’s growth as a global educational destination.
For both Dubai and the UAE, education is a fundamental driver of its plan to turn itself into an innovation-driven economy. The country is gearing up for innovation by making changes in the educational curriculum necessary for creating future-ready students. The UAE Centennial 2071 Plans has outlined strategies for diversifying the economy by relying less on oil and focusing on learning programmes in advanced information technology and engineering. This will be achieved through comprehensive investments in education.
The sixth Global Education and Skills Forum will generate cutting-edge insights into some of the most important developments shaping education across the world. The climax of the GESF will be the award ceremony of the US $1 million Global Teacher Prize 2018, the fourth time the prize will have been awarded.
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