Mobile museums part of school heritage drive

ABU DHABI // A programme that includes mobile museums and archaeology classes will help children learn about the UAE's heritage, culture and the arts, education officials said yesterday.

The scheme, being developed by the Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage Authority (Adach), the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) and the Smithsonian Institution, is expected to begin next year.

The aim is to enhance children's sense of national identity by producing curricula and teaching materials that make culture and heritage interesting for students in elementary school all the way through university.

"We do not only want to develop a strategy for culture, we also want to provide schools and universities with the tools that make cultural and heritage education interesting for students, so they would be interested in preserving their own culture. We want to build a generation of museum-goers," said Monette Saade, a project manager at Adach.

In a country where nationals make up about 20 per cent of the population, national identity is a priority in planning for the future, officials said.

The programme will target schools and universities in the capital. It is also linked to the Abu Dhabi policy agenda for 2030, which cites education promoting "national identity" as a cornerstone of progress, and seeks to promote Abu Dhabi as the cultural hub of the region.

"Its implementation depends largely on the agenda of Adec, because they have an estimated timeframe, but there will be major and significant changes from next year with the programme we have developed," said Dr Sami al Masri, the deputy director general for arts, culture and heritage and director of strategic planning and development at Adach.

Society in general will benefit from a generation of youth who are more aware of the culture around them, officials said.

"Education on history and heritage is the main piece that solves thMobile identity puzzle faced by the current generation," Mr al Masri said.

"Some of the main challenges that emerged from the research we began in 2006 pertain to the way culture is taught and perceived by students. Important themes and topics of national identity and national culture are either non-existent at the school level or are being addressed in a very superficial and non-comprehensive manner."

Young Emiratis working at Adach have noted the scarcity of material on heritage in schools, officials said.

"Much of our heritage and customs are not emphasised enough in schools, and we only learn from it through our parents," said Mariam al Shamsi, a recent university graduate and a volunteer co-ordinator at Adach.

"As we grow older, many tend to move away from it. Many young people do not know many details of our customs, and this new initiative will hope to educate them better."

To establish best practices and define the strategy, the authority is holding a four-day international roundtable, which began yesterday and includes several leading cultural and education specialists. Recommendations are expected on Tuesday, the conference's final day.

Both Adach and Adec say the discussions held during the sessions are essential to developing the strategy.

Dr Lynne Pierson, the head of education at Adec, said the way teaching is approached in the emirate will change as the the new school model, of which art and culture will be an important aspect, is implemented.

This year Adec put a new emphasis on the teaching of music and art in public schools, one of the first steps in its school reform programme.

"The integration of culture and heritage in the educational system cannot be done by one body but it is about an ongoing partnership," Dr Pierson said.

There are about 300 public schools and more than 180 private schools with more than more than 280,000 students in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, according to Adec. There are also three federal universities in the capital with about 20,000 students and several other private universities.

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