UAE extends AI curriculum to every school

The UAE has approved the rollout of an artificial intelligence curriculum across all public and private schools, pairing classroom instruction with large-scale teacher training and a new AI-assisted decision-making system for the federal Cabinet.

The decision, announced after a Cabinet meeting chaired by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, makes AI education part of the national school framework across all stages. The curriculum is designed to give pupils a grounding in AI data, algorithms, applications and risks while building awareness of ethical use.

The Cabinet said a pilot programme and evaluation had already produced positive results in public schools before the wider approval. It also endorsed a mechanism for sharing the curriculum and its components with education ministries and the international education community, extending the programme beyond domestic use.

Alongside the curriculum, the government plans to train 22,000 teachers and education professionals to use AI tools in teaching, assessment, curriculum analysis and lesson planning. The programme is also intended to help educators use the technology to encourage innovation among pupils rather than treat AI as a standalone technical subject.

Sheikh Mohammed said the scale of technological change would reshape education, its processes and its tools, requiring teachers to keep developing their own capabilities. “To fulfil their new role, teachers will have to become lifelong learners,” he said, adding that education systems could not prepare children for the future by relying solely on yesterday’s methods.

The nationwide decision follows curriculum changes already introduced for the 2026-27 academic year. The Ministry of Education has merged Design, Innovation and Computer Science with the AI curriculum under a single subject titled Artificial Intelligence and Technology across the first, second and third educational cycles. The revised content is aligned with the National Artificial Intelligence Curriculum Framework.

The broader package of education reforms also includes changes to science, Arabic, social studies, moral education, mathematics and English, while revised study plans have given older pupils greater flexibility in selecting subjects. The 2026-27 academic year began on August 31 for public schools and private schools following the Ministry curriculum.

The Ministry’s existing teaching plan also standardises weekly lesson allocations across national-curriculum schools, with 32 lessons for Cycle 1 pupils and 36 for students in Cycles 2 and 3. Artificial Intelligence and Technology remains within those approved timetables rather than being treated as an extracurricular programme. For Grades 11 and 12, AI also features among elective options within the revised senior-secondary framework, alongside compulsory core subjects and other scientific choices for students.

The education measure was announced as the government deepened the use of AI at Cabinet level. Sheikh Mohammed also launched the Cabinet AI Adviser System, made up of 32 specialised AI assistants intended to support ministers around the clock.

The system will analyse policies, legislation, strategies and government frameworks, assess their possible financial, economic, social and environmental effects, compare proposals with international best practice and provide recommendations. It will also connect new issues with earlier Cabinet decisions and monitor implementation.

Government officials say the system is designed to accelerate the study of policies, projects and initiatives while improving the quality and consistency of decisions. The framework includes safeguards for confidentiality and compliance with the UAE’s cybersecurity standards.

The Cabinet also approved a governed process for issuing decisions supported by agentic AI technologies and the AI adviser system. The move builds on a federal programme announced earlier this year to deploy Agentic AI across 50 per cent of government sectors and services within two years, allowing systems to undertake more autonomous execution and support decision-making.

That programme forms part of a wider restructuring of federal digital governance. In June, Sheikh Mohammed approved the establishment of the Artificial Intelligence and Data Authority to bring public data, AI capabilities and digital government functions into a single national ecosystem.