Aspiring leader of the Web 3.0 landscape, several UAE schools have decided to prepare its kids for the job market of the future by bringing blockchain and other emerging technologies into the curriculum. The primary objective is to make children fully aware of the possibilities in the technology space.
Schools in UAE are setting aside an hour each week to let students experience and explore the world of blockchain game development, learning about NFTs, and the wider metaverse. Also, they have created a series of videos to educate the community about the benefits of this technology. They will also run extracurricular activities on the blockchain and NFTs.
Emphasizing the rationale behind the decision, Gillian Hammond, principal at Reptom Al Barsha, told The National News, a leading newspaper in the country, that the move is meant to promote online safety. In a digital scenario as crowded as the metaverse especially, she argued, one should be able to judge what is safe to share online. The students are told to never share their names, location, or pictures.
Another component of the education, Hammond says, involves reminding pupils that things are not always as they appear online.
As part of this broader push for digital safety, the family of schools that Reptom Al Barsha is a part of has identified blockchain as “the technology of the future.” The school is hoping to emerge as a leader as they raise awareness among the students, teachers, and parents, she concluded.
Tracy Moxley, the principal of another UAE-based school, said while emphasizing the need for lessons in emerging technologies to students, she wishes to ensure that students “have a digital mindset.” What she means by this that she wants to encourage financial literacy of the world of blockchains, crypto, NFTs, and more broadly, digital assets.
The push for crypto in the curricula of these schools isn’t entirely surprising because the nation has assumed a pro-crypto stance for a while now. In September 2022, the country’s leader announced at the Dubai Metaverse Assembly that they are considering a new economic output metric to measure the contribution of metaverse to its economy.
One school in Dubai, the UK curriculum Citizens School, even claims to be the first in the Middle East to allow parents to pay school fees with crypto. The school accepts BTC and ETH payments.
