KHDA × DP World Foundation × MIT RAISE — Dubai's Multi-Year AI Literacy Programme for Private Schools

In February 2026, at the World Governments Summit, Dubai's Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) launched a multi-year AI literacy programme in partnership with the DP World Foundation and MIT's Responsible AI for Social Empowerment and Education (RAISE) initiative, designed to run until February 2030.

The core programme targets Grades 6-8 students, integrating short, practical AI modules into six subjects (Maths, Science, Computing, Art, English and Arabic) so students learn how AI systems function, how to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs, and how to use AI tools responsibly. A separate high-school enrichment strand runs a four-week online plus one-week in-person format for cohorts of 40-100 students per session.

Rollout is phased: curriculum co-design with educators at selected schools, followed by classroom pilots and teacher training, ahead of a broader rollout across Dubai's private schools. Teachers receive classroom-ready resources, professional development, and access to a KHDA-supervised portal of age-appropriate AI tools.

The programme is projected to reach approximately 80,500 students and 3,600 teachers, but as of its February 2026 launch no learning-outcome results have been published; the announcement references only a planned 'formative evaluation of student learning and programme quality' for the enrichment strand.

The programme has institutional backing and a defined multi-year roadmap and phased design, but measured impact on student learning remains to be demonstrated.