Schools in UAE Educate Pupils on Metaverse, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies

A group of schools in the UAE begin to include lessons about metaverse, blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies for their students to qualify them for the labor market.

These schools also aim to show the potential and advantages of the metaverse to the students, the National Newspaper reported.

One of these schools is Repton School Al Barsha in Dubai, which allocated an hour in its timetable every week for its pupils to make them discover areas of the metaverse, NFTs, blockchain, and game design.

Principal of Repton Al Barsha Gillian Hammond described the blockchain as the technology of the future, which her school’s pupils and teachers should be aware of.

Hammond asserted the importance of creating a safe atmosphere for the students while exploring the metaverse to become digital citizens.

She emphasized that the school cooperates with the parents to tackle restrictions, which should be in place for their children while they are online at home, adding the school educates its pupils not to share their names, pictures, or location.

“We want our pupils to understand and learn about blockchain and NFTs. We have had pupils in years four to six involved in game design,” she further said.

In 2021, the school debuted a digital passport for all pupils in cooperation with a blockchain provider.

Moreover, Repton Al Barsha launched a series of videos to educate the community about the benefits of blockchain, in addition to running an extracurricular activity on NFTs and blockchain this year for interested pupils.

Another school in Dubai, called Citizens School, marked the first school in the Middle East to accept fees in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Principal Tracy Moxley said the school targets creating a digital mindset for its pupils to enable them to understand the world of digital assets, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain through project-based learning and digital literacy classes in Years 5 and 6, adding the complexity of classes increases in the secondary level.

Mark Ryan, a visual arts teacher in the primary years program at Raha International School in Abu Dhabi, pointed out that pupils are encouraged to make NFTs since last year without focusing on selling them online, saying the goal is how to track the work of these young artists on the digital space.

Ryan added that this year, he educates pupils on how to use digital spaces like Sandbox and Decentraland.

Over the past few years, the UAE has positioned itself as one of the world’s prominent hubs for metaverse and blockchain technologies. It works on enabling digital assets companies to launch their operations in the country.

The Emirati government, in July, launched the Dubai Metaverse Strategy which aims to contribute $4 billion to the emirate’s economy. The strategy targets increasing the number of blockchain and metaverse companies fivefold within five years as well as offering 40,000 virtual jobs to be one of the top 10 global metaverse economies.