The Mohamed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Program (MBRSLP) celebrates winning a top level international award for the use of Internet and Communications Technology (ICT) to advance society at the World Summit on Information Society WSIS+10 High Level Event. This year, the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) is being held in Geneva, Switzerland from June 10-13. The MBRSLP brings major acclaim to the UAE with the honor of gaining international recognition for their efforts after only the first year of the program’s implementation.

WSIS is carried out with the aim to implement the development goals set by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/252 and the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS). The aim of WSIS is to act as a platform for multiple stakeholders including government, private and civil society actors, to collaborate and carry out development efforts in their respective countries. The 2014 WSIS Project Prize selected only 18 winning projects, the MBRSLP being one of those winners, from over 150 projects from more than 40 countries. The extensive four-phase selection process includes a nomination process as well as a public voting phase.

“Participating in the WSIS+10 High Level Event has given the MBRSLP a permanent seat in global discussions on promoting smart learning and raising the quality of education, while building valuable partnerships that will help us achieve our overall mission of offering a world-class education in the UAE,” noted H.E. Mohammed Al Geyath. “Winning the WSIS Project Prize was an essential step in validating our model to our stakeholders and partners, helping us to secure the support and collective participation we need to build a generation that can successfully compete in world markets,” added H.E. Mohammed Al Geyath. 

The MBRSLP was awarded the ‘Capacity Building’ category of the WSIS Project Prize for its role in promoting the use of ICT in public schools and in building a communication and information infrastructure in the UAE. Furthermore, the prize highlighted the achievements of the MBRSLP in training teachers, curriculum development, improving access to information and knowledge and raising the level of ICT literacy amongst students to encourage innovation and lifelong learning. Empowering vulnerable groups and girls in particular is another mandate of this award that the MBRSLP has embodied, while it implements its program in female and male public schools alike and to students of all levels of excellence including those dealing with various disabilities.  

Moving forward from WSIS and the award, the MBRSLP is eager to continue its hard work to implement its multiple phased, incremental strategy, which has now reached 123 public schools and 11,402 students to include all of UAE’s public schools by the year 2019. The MBRSLP will be included in the "WSIS Stocktaking: Success Stories 2014," solidifying its place as an internationally recognised case study and proven model on ICT learning, originating in the UAE and is both sustainable and replicable.   

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