The Ministry of Education is preparing a plan to introduce new competitions for kindergarten students and university students in the series of artificial intelligence and robot competitions 2020, and is scheduled to be announced in detail in early October.
This came during a press conference, yesterday, to announce the launch of the sixth edition of the initiative series of artificial intelligence and robot competitions, and is expected to participate about 4000 contestants from different educational levels nationwide. The initiative aims to activate robot labs and promote competition in the field of robot and artificial intelligence.
The series includes a series of national and international competitions in the fields of programming, robotics and technical innovation, which qualify the winners to represent the UAE in ten international competitions held throughout the year in Egypt, America, Czech Republic, France and Singapore, where the series of competitions are divided into three main areas: A group of competitions that focus on developing students' skills in the fields of technological design, mechanical and electronic engineering, and small programmer competitions, a group of competitions that focus on providing students with programming skills and problem solving commensurate with the stages of study Technical innovation competitions, a set of competitions that provide students with creative thinking skills and equip them with logical thinking skills and steps of the scientific method in technical innovation and innovation.
The Ministry will start the sixth edition of the series by opening registration for the competition starting in September, which will conclude the national championship from 23-25 February next at the Abu Dhabi Exhibition Center.
The Assistant Undersecretary for the care and activities sector in the ministry, Dr. Amna Al-Dhahak Al-Shamsi said: «Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Programming have become one of the most important features of modern societies, and we have seen their presence and applications in many aspects of daily life, and we are keen to provide our students with all the science and knowledge of the times, and open We are delighted with the output of the fifth edition of the initiative and the great technical skills that our students have gained during their participation in the previous year. ”
The series of artificial intelligence and robot competitions consists of 24 sub-competitions, and introductory meetings and training courses for these competitions are carried out through the 31 specialized centers. Students are prepared to participate in the series on Saturdays and school holidays, and receive them on winter and spring holidays five days a week.
«Tamkeen» seeks to solve the problem of frequent absence of students
The Assistant Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education for the Evaluation and Curriculum Sector, Dr. Hamad Al-Yahyai, said that the Tamkeen program launched by the Ministry targets students who failed in three subjects or less, students who lacked skills during the last academic year due to their repeated absence. To them in the new school year, make a link between them and the school to overcome the accumulated absence behavior and lack of link and motivation for the teaching and learning process.
He added in a media statement that the percentage of students who are absent frequently does not exceed 10%, pointing out that the student's commitment to school attendance is a priority, because schools do not rely on the textbook, but the availability of resource rooms, laboratories and robots, FabLab, and software.
Al-Yahyai stressed that all these measures come within the UAE school system with all its tracks, which aim to achieve the goals of the national agenda and the strategies of the state in the short and long term.
He pointed out that in the past the society used to the system of student entrance exams at the end of the year, and then announce the result, and if it fails to enter a direct re-examination, adding: «From our study of this method we found that the student does not always achieve the desired result for several reasons, the most important of which is the frequent absence. Beginning of the study until the end of the school year we see repeated absences, so we conducted a study on the relationship of absences with the results of students, and the study resulted in the high rates of absenteeism to the failure of students to achieve the minimum possibilities and knowledge needed to exceed the school year, so we began to think in an innovative way, "We have learned that these students are able to follow their lessons and enable them to acquire knowledge, skills and pass tests while they are in treatment rooms abroad, which falls under the Tamkeen program."
He stressed that the tests are not to judge that the student is successful or fail, and that the process of teaching and learning is not a measure to judge the student, but to enable them to knowledge, skills and behavior, so the education system in the UAE school to ensure that the student of basic knowledge and skills more important than to rule that this The student is successful or failed.