The 4th edition of the National Science, Technology and Innovation (NSTI) Festival 2020, which was organized by the Ministry of Education in Dubai Festival Arena between February 4 and 8, has recently concluded. The festival featured various activities over 5 days, during which the Emirate School students were able to dazzle the festival’s visitors with their innovative scientific research outputs and projects. This year’s festival was truly a cognitive and innovative demonstration that we are proud of. It prompts us to do more serious work to enable our students to meet the requirements of their times and keep pace with the rapid scientific and technological developments.

The festival included several main sections, the most important of which was the Science Fair, which provided a platform for public education students to display the scientific research results of their 100 innovative projects. These projects are due to participate in the Emirates Young Scientist Competition out of 2,472 projects done by 5,791 students from 427 government and private schools that enrolled in the competition and went through several stages of competitive evaluation by specialized professors from the country's elite universities. The projects participating in the competition are divided into four main fields; namely, technology, biological sciences & environment, chemistry, physics & mathematics and social and behavioral sciences.

The festival also included the Junior Innovators Challenge, a competition dedicated to Emirati kindergarten and first to fourth grade students from all UAE schools. The competition is aimed at inspiring young students and tomorrow’s youth, motivating and encouraging them to be creative and innovate, promoting their spirit of excellence in all fields of science and technology. It is also aimed at refining their personalities by engaging them in various challenges that were commensurate with their age groups. Through these challenges, new creative students are identified in the UAE for showing not only excellent creativity and innovation skills but also problem solving, critical thinking, teamwork, communication and knowledge sharing skills.

In addition, the festival included a student retreat concerned with exploring and supporting emerging entrepreneurs of Emirati students who are still studying at UAE government and private schools. The retreat is also concerned with developing the entrepreneurial capabilities and financial skills of these emerging entrepreneurs by giving them the opportunity to practice their emerging entrepreneurial experience and prepare an Emirati student capable of overcoming the challenges faced in the world of entrepreneurship. A team of experts provided the students participating in the student retreat with a package of specialized advisory services in the field of developing small projects. They also offered the necessary support to the students, discussed their ideas and assisted them in turning these ideas into viable business projects. As many as 47 male and female students participated in the Student Retreat out of 289 registered students who came up with ideas for pioneering projects that were evaluated and the best was selected according to predetermined criteria.

The festival also included an Innovation Lab, which featured several dedicated workshops presented to the students by a group of leading government and private establishments in the UAE. Besides, the festival included a family festival, which provided an ideal platform to bolster community involvement and familiarize the public with the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in a wonderful entertaining and interactive family atmosphere.

Bringing inspiring models of famous innovators and decision-makers closer to the minds of our students and their contact with them added a special glow to the festival. The festival included a world-class conference, which attracted a group of prominent speakers and through which ideas were exchanged and learned expertise and experiences were shared. The conference reviewed inspirational stories to motivate students by a group of UAE ministers and dignitaries as well as international entrepreneurs and speakers who contributed to honing students’ interests and preparing students for a promising future, they being the future leaders who would shoulder the responsibility for sustaining the UAE’s development and prosperity.

The Ministry of Education’s entire activities are derived from the UAE National Agenda and UAE Centennial 2071. These are the guidelines for which the Ministry of Education has drawn up action plans and programs that ultimately meet and integrate with the UAE’s efforts and our wise leadership’s aspirations towards building a competitive knowledge-based economy for the UAE.

Innovation means continuous work and positive thinking to facilitate and improve the lives of societies by producing ideas that contribute to finding solutions to whatever challenges that any society may face. Our role in the Ministry of Education is to fuel that positive thinking and passion for knowledge among our students and take them to the highest level of development by creating a stimulating home and school environment as necessary to achieve this goal. Our role integrates with and is closely identical with parent’s role and guidelines because innovation is an approach and a feature that we strive to be inherent in the students of the Emirati School.

By H.E. Dr. Amna Al Dahak Al Shamsi,

Assistant Undersecretary for Care and Activities Sector, Ministry of Education