“On The Horizon of Arabic Teaching and Learning” Reintroducing Arabic to the 21st century

Tuesday, May 25th, 2021, Abu Dhabi - Kamkalima will hold its first annual conference on Monday, May 31st, 2021, called “On the Horizon of Arabic Teaching and Learning”. This conference will host experts in Education, EdTech, and Arabic language pioneers, most notably Siroun Shamigian, CEO of Kamkalima); Dr. Farah Sarraj, Acting Managing Director of Arabic at Al-Futtaim Education Foundation; Nafez Al Dakkak, CEO of Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development; and Dr. Rana Tamim, Dean of the College of Education, Associate Professor of Educational Technology at the College of Education at Zayed University, among others. 

This first-ever conference tackles the many dilemmas regarding Arabic teaching and learning that emerged mainly after the shift to remote learning that produced challenges to both students and teachers. It also presents practical solutions to these challenges along with a vision into the future of teaching and learning Arabic.

Since its foundation in 2015, Kamkalima empowers Arabic Departments with modern tools to teach Arabic by providing hundreds of digital resources, correction tools, and detailed analytics. Kamkalima also provides professional development sessions for the teachers through its “Hamzat Al-Wassel” program. In view of this, Kamkalima won many awards, most notably, CEO Siroun Shamigian has won the UNIDO 2017 Woman of the Year on Education Technology, Cartier Women’s Initiative Award, Queen Rania Award for Education Entrepreneurship 2019. Kamkalima was also notably ranked in the top “50 Startups to Watch” by Forbes Middle East. 

The numbers of registered schools in Kamkalima increased at an accelerated pace to reach more than 70 schools in 8 different countries with more than 24,000 students.

It is worth mentioning that this conference will be held in partnership with well-known development and educational institutions such as Queen Rania Foundation, Taaleem, Classera, GEMS Education, D3 Consultants, Al-Dar Academies, Tawazon App, and Emirates National Schools.

By the end of the conference, Kamkalima, partnering with Al Futtaim Education Foundation (AFEF), will launch their Arabic phonics game application for early learners (from 3 to 6 years old). This app aims at developing reading skills for early learners. Kamkalima will leverage its existing technology to design and develop an engaging and fun application using the model of phonics instruction developed by AFEF. In this regard, Dr. Farah Sarraj noted that “the aim of this application is to support and provide early learners with the independent ability to analyze and combine sounds and the ability to master mechanisms of reading at this early stage.” Siroun expressed pride in the partnership with AFEF; looking forward to “the positive impact the app will have on the teaching and learning process of Arabic in the first years of its acquisition.” 

The conference is followed by the Writing Competition Closing Party at 5 pm during which the student and teacher winners will be revealed and celebrated. This year’s writing competition was organized in partnership with “Anghami” and “Tawazon” and revolved around music, and the poems will be sung and launched on “Anghami” for the world to hear.