Lughati, the Sharjah-based initiative dedicated to supporting Arabic learning the smart way, has completed the third phase of its mandate to supply Sharjah schools with smart devices, having delivered more than 3,100 to all Grade 2 students around the emirate and all Grade 3 Studentswith disabilities and learning difficulties in Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services.

With a phase three budget of AED 15 million, Lughati also supplied 130 dedicated storageunits and charging lockers in a total of 54 schools, plus training programmes for teachers and field visits. The milestone marks the halfway point in the project’s six phases, which has already seen 5,060 kindergarten pupils and 232 teachers receive devices in phase one and 2959 first-grade students and 129 teachers in 49 schools take delivery of the smart tablets in phase two.The initiative in its entirety aims to distribute tablets to 25,000 students and 1,000 teachers of all grades in all of Sharjah’s public schools.

Students at Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services were selected to receive the smart devices during the launch of phase three last year, in alignment with the UAE ‘Year of Giving’.

Badria Al Ali, Manager of the Lughati Initiative, said: “The completion of phase three means that more than 11,000 children now have access to smart devices and can benefit from the very latest technology in their education. For that many students to be part of a digital classroom is an exceptional achievement and will provide a world-class learning environment for all those involved. By using the very latest technology in schools, Arabic will stay a leading language relevant to science, the arts and modern technology and in an ever-evolving world of education, this will help our students to stay one step ahead.”

She added: “The budgets allocated to the initiative also ensure that we can continue to provide teacher training and maintain the tablets’working condition in order to ensure a continuity of Lughati’s goals and successes.”

Each smart tablet is equipped with the ‘Horouf’ smart application developed by Horouf Educational Publishing, which specialises in creating contemporary and innovative educational tools for children in Arabic and is a subsidiary of Kalimat Publishing Group.

The supporting of Arabic education in public schools in Sharjah using state-of-the-art technology was officially announced in 2013 by His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council Ruler of Sharjah. The initiative was approved by His Highness in January 2016 under its new title ‘Lughati’ to develop education in the emirate, preserve the Arabic language and endear Arabic studies to children by incorporating modern methods.