Ruler of Dubai reveals 12,000 volunteers have signed up for electronic education drive in just days

Translators needed for 5,000 science and maths videos for teaching across the Arab world

Sheikh Mohammed called on scholars and volunteers from throughout the Arab world to contribute to electronic education. Wam

An education drive that will produce free science and maths videos for millions of pupils across the Arab world has received more than 12,000 volunteers in the space of a few days.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, revealed the rush of keen volunteers on Thursday in a post in Twitter.

The programme aims to benefit 50 million pupils around the Arab World, by translating and reproducing 5,000 advanced educational videos into Arabic, focusing on latest advancements in maths and science.

Sheikh Mohammed launched the programme on Monday. He called on scholars and volunteers who have expertise in translation, media production and voice over from all around the Arab world to contribute.

The videos will be ready and available online and for schools across the Middle East and Africa a year from now.

“The programme is a challenge, because we are challenging ourselves if we can translate and reproduce 5,000 videos in one year,” said Abdullah Al Nuaimi, a project manager at the Initiatives project.

Since the launch on Sept 18 until Oct 18, the focus will be on having as many volunteers as possible register on the programme's website.

“After that period we have a week of looking into the applications and filtering them to choose the qualified right people to work with us on it.”

It is vital to choose the proper candidates “because it is a responsibility, to translate material for pupils it has to be one hundred per cent accurate and suitable for curriculums in Arab countries,” he explained.

“So we are carefully picking translators, graphic designers, people who have experience with voice over.”

Mr Al Nuaimi said the high number of registrations is not a surprise.

“Sheikh Mohammed always chooses topics that touch on the sensitive issues of need in the Arab world, clearly there is a need for this and there are gaps in certain areas that need to be filled.”

They expect more and more people to continue signing up over the next month.

For instance, in the Arab reading challenge, they were expecting 1 million in the first year and they received more than 3 million. “And now in its second year, we have 7.4 million.”

“So we are optimistic that we will have positive turnouts,” he said, “and there will be more initiative that aim to fill the gaps we have in the Arab world in the coming years.”