UAE trains 25,000 teachers in AI in seven weeks
Alef Education delivers UAE’s biggest teacher AI programme across 710 schools
#UAE #education — Abu Dhabi-listed education technology company Alef Education and Microsoft have completed an AI literacy programme for around 25,000 educators across 710 UAE schools. Running from 11 May to 30 June 2026 over the Alef Academy platform, the programme covered both classroom teaching and school administration. It was rolled out through the Ministry of Education, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority and the Sharjah Private Education Authority.
SO WHAT? — Most AI upskilling programmes in education tend to target small cohorts or single institutions. However, the scale of the UAE’s ambition to integrate AI training and theory into its education system requires wider upskilling efforts, necessitating platforms that can deliver programmes at scale. Getting 25,000 educators through structured training in under two months was made possible by Alef Education’s existing Alef Academy platform, which already serves around 84,000 educators and two million students across the UAE, Indonesia and Morocco. Microsoft brought the curriculum framework via its Elevate programme. The combination made a fast, wide rollout workable.
KEY POINTS:
Abu Dhabi-based Alef Education has delivered a nationwide AI literacy programme for educators across the UAE in partnership with Microsoft between 11 May and 30 June 2026.
25,000 educators across 710 UAE schools completed AI literacy training through Alef Education’s Alef Academy platform. The programme covered practical AI use in teaching and day-to-day school operations.
The company’s flagship Alef Platform was developed to deliver personalised learning experiences for K-12 students, together with supplemental tools covering Arabic literacy and broader subject areas.
The teacher training was distributed via four education authorities: the UAE Ministry of Education, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Education and Knowledge (ADEK), Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority and the Sharjah Private Education Authority, as well as via private schools.
Microsoft contributed through its Elevate programme, which provides structured AI skills training designed for deployment at scale within organisations and institutions.
The initiative aligns with the UAE National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031, and the government’s 2025 directives to integrate AI education across the country’s school system.
Listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), Alef Education currently serves approximately two million students and 84,000 educators across 19,000 schools in the UAE, Indonesia and Morocco.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: Alef, Microsoft