As children across the UAE get set to finish the academic year this week, UAE parents have highlighted how the learning experience has evolved, identifying opportunities for schools to better develop children for the future.
In new research by Citizens School Dubai, the UAE Future of Learning 2022 survey found that 69% of parents in the UAE believe that artificial intelligence and virtual reality will have the largest impact on their children’s future, followed by cryptocurrency and the metaverse (54%).
The survey also found that key skills such as resilience (51%), inclusivity (49%) and entrepreneurship (43%), rank lowest in the skills children are gaining from education today.
“Our research shows that there’s clearly a need for education to adapt and evolve by better equipping children with the skills they will need to thrive in an uncertain future. Citizens School is on a mission to find a better way, re-imagining the traditional, challenging the conventional by giving children choices to explore themes, expand interests and discover new technologies to determine the routes that they want to go on to reach their full potential”, said Dr. Adil Al Zarooni, Founder, Citizens School, Dubai.
“Fundamental to this is actively encouraging and promoting behaviours and qualities like resilience, inclusivity and entrepreneurship, which we know are important to a successful career and life progression. We are proud to play our part in reimagining education as technologies like blockchain, cryptocurrency and AR are already gaining huge uptake and will be the driving force behind economies in the future”, continued Dr. Adil.
The Citizens schooling experience centers around futureproofing students by equipping them with a rich, connected bank of knowledge and skills relevant for the 21st century, through its custom-built curriculum – Citizens Tapestry. Citizens Tapestry is a curriculum based on UK National Curriculum and enriched with six key threads – Mindset; Entrepreneurship; Health & Wellbeing; Sustainability; Global Leadership; and Digital Literacy – forming part of its comprehensive and holistic education system.
Earlier this year, Citizens School became the first school in the region to accept cryptocurrency, and is set to become the first school to operate in the metaverse when it formally launches its presence later this year.
“We believe empowering our students with the right choices is vital to enable them to emerge successful in the rapidly evolving world they are growing up in. Technologies like AR and VR need to be embraced in today’s education environment, allowing both children and parents to engage in open discussion about how these technologies will evolve and influence the future,” added Hisham Hodroge, Chief Executive Officer, Citizens School, Dubai.
Survey Methodology:
- 1,243 online interviews were conducted
- Survey was administered in both English and Arabic as per respondent’s preference
- Length of the survey: 10 close-ended questions
- The survey was conducted between 1st to 9th June 2022
- Respondents were 18+
- Sample was representative of the adult national, Emirati and expat parents with kids (K-12) in UAE
- 56 % of the sample were female and 44 % comprised of males
