Digital School aims to educate 1 million refugees over next five years

Refugee education is in crisis. Nearly half of all refugee children are not attending school according to the latest UNHCR figures and with recent disruptions globally, the number continues to rise.

Determined to make a difference and change lives, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Initiatives Foundation in Dubai launched The Digital School and is aiming to enrol one million refugees and underprivileged children over the next five years.

A pilot stage of The Digital School was initiated in 2020 and the first phase was officially launched this year across five countries, including Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Mauritania and Colombia. Up to 20,000 students are set to enrol this year, along with training 500 teachers. 120 learning centres will also be rolled out, providing educational material in Arabic, French, Spanish and English.

Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, the UAE Minister of State for Ai, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, who is also Chairman of The Digital School board, told Euronews: “We are choosing locations that do have a certain baseline of infrastructure. So they have electricity, they have some sort of broadband connectivity. If it's not high end, at the least we are able to give them access to the services. We download the content on these tablets and actually provide the tablets with the educational curriculum.”

The Digital School has a global alliance of more than 35 international organisations, with academic, educational and research institutions, such as UNESCO, UNICEF, Harvard, and Arizona State University. The Secretary General of The Digital School, Dr Waleed Al Ali stated: “We believe in partnerships and that's why the Alliance for the future of digital learning is our aim, our method to bring partners from