World-class curriculum to enhance the UAE's education system

A teacher leads an Arabic class in the Dubai British School.

The UAE Minister for Education, Hussain bin Ibrahim al Hammadi, has announced a world-class curriculum to enhance the UAE's education system with a seven-year agreement signed with McGraw-Hill Education, a learning science company, for all K-12 math and science instructional materials in e-book and print formats.
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The content for each curricular programme was selected based on the material developed for US standards and is aligned with the UAE National Standard Framework. All materials were created in Arabic and delivered in August for the 2016/2017 academic year.
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"The new instructional materials provided by McGraw-Hill Education will help us create the UAE of tomorrow," Hammadi said. "Our economic growth depends on investing in education to build a knowledge-based society, and we have made massive strides for the children, women and men of the UAE. These new instructional materials are one more step on our journey of providing world-class education for our citizens and residents.
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"It is the leadership's vision to provide students in the UAE with 21^st century skills - education is a fundamental element for the development of a nation and the best investment in our youth. The new instructional materials clearly align school curricula with the country's vision of building a ­robust knowledge and innovation economy," he added.
Dr Rashid Al Hammadi, Director of Middle Schools Curriculum, said the new introductions will enable students to achieve high results and pass international tests like the Advanced Placement (AP). Passing such tests, he noted, enables students to transfer credits in math and sciences when joining university, which shortens their undergraduate semesters, as they can skip introductory courses.
The curriculum has been introduced in all schools, including Adec, along with the private schools that implement the ministry's curriculum. The math and science books are available in Arabic, but also in English for the elite stream of over 1,000 students selected for high performance public schools.
David Levin, president and CEO of McGraw-Hill Education, noted that the "UAE is an emerging global education hub."
"Given its focus on quality and innovation, the UAE is an important market for us and, with this agreement, we plan to expand our presence in Dubai where we have had an office since 2009," added Mark Dorman, president of McGraw-Hill Education International & Professional. "We look forward to delivering an outstanding program that will be impactful to educational outcomes in the UAE, in the GCC and the wider world."
McGraw-Hill Education provides outcome-focused learning solutions, delivering both curated content and digital learning tools and platforms to students in the classrooms of approximately 250,000 higher education instructors, 13,000 pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade school districts and a wide variety of academic institutions, professionals and companies. It distributes its products in over 135 countries across Asia-Pacific, Europe, India, Latin America, the Middle East and North America and in nearly 60 languages.
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