DUBAI, (Pakistan Point News - 18th Dec, 2019) Coinciding with the UN Arabic Language Day observed annually on 18th December, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives announced the launch of Arabic language lessons on the Madrasa e-learning platform, through which 50 million Arab students from kindergarten to grade 12 will have access to free online Arabic language educational content.
Implementation phases Basic Arabic lessons will be provided in the first phase, moving to Arabic educational material for Primary school students in the second phase that will produce 25 percent of the new content. The third phase covers 50 percent of the content, leading up to the last phase that will see 1,000 Arabic language videos for students from kindergarten to grade 12.
Need for Arabic educational content Figures show the low presence of Arabic digital content relative to the number of Arabic internet users.
Comprehensive educational project The comprehensive online Arabic educational content was developed in line with accredited school curricula across the Arab world to cover all aspects related to the language from grammar, reading and comprehension to speech and writing skills.
800+200 The Arabic language lessons on the Madrasa e-learning platform are categorised into two sections of 800 educational videos and 200 statically animated stories, totalling to 1,000 videos mapped with learning outcomes.
Four features The Arabic lessons on the Madrasa platform focus on four unique features: applying modern and innovative technology to create engaging Arabic content that help promote and encourage the use of the language among the young generation; adopting a simple language that meets the needs of the young generation and responds to different age groups; generating high quality and accredited content in coordination with a group of experts and academics, and providing more than 1,000 Arabic language videos to students from kindergarten to grade 12.
Content production Dr. Waleed Al Ali, Director of the Madrasa e-learning platform, said, "Through Madrasa, we aim to empower a generation capable of generating Arabic content to contribute to the overall knowledge in the Arab world."
On their plans, Al Ali noted that the platform will include online educational content in computer science, engineering, programming, Artificial Intelligence, and space science.
Academic collaboration Sharifa Al Moussa, Director of Learning Resources & Educational Solutions Department at the Ministry of Education, said the ultimate goal of the Madrasa e-learning platform is to encourage learning, spark curiosity and promote self-learning, as well as support the educational institutions and teachers across the Arab world with high-quality innovative content that complements school curricula and improves the learning outcome.
Dr. Hanada Taha, Endowed Professor of Arabic Language at Zayed University, said the new content on Madrasa will inspire millions of students around the world to learn Arabic.
Contests The Madrasa e-learning platform recently adopted the "gamification in education" approach to motivate self-learning, promote healthy competition and build interactive skills by combining entertainment with education.
11 million words The Madrasa e-learning platform is the outcome of the Translation Challenge announced in 2017, calling for researchers, and professionals in the Arab World to translate, design and produce 5,000 videos and 11 million words of educational content in mathematics and science into Arabic. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, launched Madrasa (www.madrasa.org) in 2018 to provides 5,000 free Arabic videos in general science, mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics to 50 million Arab students from kindergarten to grade 12.
