Inaugural Emirati Education Forum to Convene National Stakeholders in Strategic Dialogue
The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research will host a landmark forum in October 2026, uniting educational leaders, policymakers and practitioners around a comprehensive vision for transforming the UAE's education ecosystem through collaborative engagement across five foundational pillars.
The Emirates Center for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR) has announced the establishment of the inaugural Emirati Education Forum, a major national convocation scheduled for 21 October 2026 at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi. Conceived as an annual strategic platform of enduring significance, the forum will assemble an expansive coalition of partners drawn from across the education ecosystem to examine transformative developments in education and to address key national priorities and challenges with rigorous strategic perspective.
Five Pillars Framework
The forum unfolds under the thematic architecture of Five Pillars of Education: Toward an Integrated Education Ecosystem, a conceptual framework that embraces a distinctly student-centred vision. This vision rests upon the recognition that five complementary components are essential to educational excellence: educational institutions, teachers, families, education policymakers and regulators, and supporting institutions alongside the wider community. Strategic dialogues throughout the forum will strengthen integration across these foundational pillars and will generate insights and recommendations to advance the development of the UAE’s education ecosystem and its supporting policies.
The National Education Charter
At the forum’s intellectual centre lies the National Education Charter, the nation’s comprehensive reference document that defines the values, attributes and skills that learners in the UAE should cultivate throughout their educational journey. The charter furnishes a unified framework for shaping education policies, curricula and programmes, and ministerial dialogue will commence with an examination titled The National Education Charter: From Vision to Practice—How Can the Five Pillars of Education Work Together?
The forum’s substantive agenda will comprise ministerial dialogues, plenary sessions, concurrent workshops and specialised presentations, addressing a comprehensive range of critical issues. These encompass The Emirati Learner and the roles of the Five Pillars; Religious Education in its content and contemporary dimensions; The Emirati Teacher; the family’s evolving role in education; alignment between educational provision and labour market requirements; the application of research to inform policymaking; the standing of the Arabic language; education policy, curricula and assessment in the age of artificial intelligence; and the judicious use of digital technology in educational settings.
Coalition of National Institutions
The ECSSR is organising the forum in partnership with a distinguished consortium of national institutions: the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research; the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Family; United Arab Emirates University; Khalifa University of Science and Technology; Mohamed bin Zayed University for Humanities; Zayed University; the Higher Colleges of Technology; the University of Dubai; Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University; the Abu Dhabi Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training; and the Emirates College for Advanced Education. This expansive partnership reflects the collective commitment of the UAE’s educational institutions to advancing the national education ecosystem.
Anticipated Participation and National Significance
The forum is anticipated to welcome approximately 1,200 participants, representing the full spectrum of stakeholders engaged in shaping education across the UAE. These will include policymakers, education regulators and institutional leaders, researchers and experts, educational professionals, families and parents, alongside teachers, academic staff, students, supporting organisations and private-sector representatives. This breadth of participation underscores the forum’s comprehensive approach to educational transformation.
The forum reflects the UAE’s fundamental national commitment to placing investment in human capital at the centre of its development trajectory. It advances the objectives established within the We the UAE 2031 vision and the aspirations of UAE Centennial 2071, which seeks to establish a world-leading education system and to reinforce education as a strategic driver of both national development and global competitiveness.
Source: Abu Dhabi Media Office