evidoria

← Back to browse

Good practice Imported

Bahrain Debates a Dedicated AI & Cybersecurity Subject as Its Curriculum Already Teaches Scratch and Python

Bahrain · Manama · See the Bahrain profile · See the Manama profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 89% 27/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Bahrain's Ministry of Education has folded AI-adjacent content — Scratch for primary pupils, Python and digital ethics for secondary students — into national curricula since 2021, and in February 2025 MPs urged a dedicated AI & cybersecurity subject.

Bahrain Debates a Dedicated AI & Cybersecurity Subject as Its Curriculum Already Teaches Scratch and Python

Details

Promoter
Bahrain Ministry of Education; Council of Representatives (Bahrain Parliament)
Period
2021-2025
Keywords
public education, curriculum policy, digital & AI literacy

Context

Since the 2021–2022 academic year, Bahrain's Ministry of Education has progressively embedded AI-adjacent skills into the national curriculum: primary pupils in grades 2-3 learn visual programming through Scratch, middle and high schoolers study Python, and digital-ethics, online-safety and data-protection modules run alongside updated ICT, business and science textbooks.

Activities

In February 2025, Parliament's Public Utilities and Environment Affairs Committee, chaired by MP Mohammed Al Bulooshi, formally urged the Ministry to introduce a dedicated, standalone AI-and-cybersecurity subject rather than leaving AI concepts scattered across existing courses. Education Minister Dr Mohammed Mubarak Juma welcomed the proposal, tying it to the Ministry's 2023–2026 digital-empowerment strategy.

Conclusions

No independent evaluation of learning outcomes, teacher readiness or student uptake has been published; the public record so far is a curriculum-content description and a live legislative debate, not a measured pilot.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k)
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years)
Staffing & skills
Bahrain Ministry of Education, Council of Representatives (Bahrain Parliament) — Public Utilities and Environment Affairs Committee, chaired by MP Mohammed Al Bulooshi, Education Minister Dr Mohammed Mubarak Juma

Conditions for success

  • national curriculum integration already under way since 2021–22 across primary through secondary grades
  • cross-subject deployment (embedded in ICT, business and science textbooks) rather than a single standalone course
  • digital-ethics, online-safety and data-protection modules included alongside technical AI content
  • political buy-in: the Education Minister publicly welcomed the parliamentary proposal

Common failure modes

  • no independent evaluation of learning outcomes, teacher readiness or student uptake has been published
  • the proposed dedicated AI-and-cybersecurity subject remains at the parliamentary-debate stage, not yet enacted

Where it fits

Governance type
national ministry plus parliamentary committee
Scale
national (Bahrain)
Income level
high-income country (Bahrain)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

Do you run this practice? Claim it — verified implementers get a public contact pathway and can propose corrections.

Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

Similar practices you may find useful