Dr Saeed Al Daheri
The current chairman of Smartworld and an Emirati academic who worked in the faculty of engineering at UAE University for 10 years, Dr Al Daheri said that Shaikh Zayed was keen to ensure that the curricula at both schools and universities met the needs of a modern country.
“In 1988, I was selected from the UAE to attend a space programme course at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and at the time this was something new for our country. Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance, was the chancellor of UAE University at the time and he told me that the leadership, including Shaikh Zayed, was very interested in what I was doing because he had a future goal of making space science a reality for the UAE.
“And this was part of Shaikh Zayed’s visionary leadership, a lot of important subjects on sciences and math — which are essential to taking the country forward were introduced in schools and universities, and that’s why I was even able to get selected for a space programme at MIT, because I was an engineering student,” he added.
“When our education system was still new, a lot of teachers from places like Egypt, Syria and Jordan were brought to the UAE. Shaikh Zayed also opened the country to private education systems. So he was putting in place all the corners of a strong and successful foundation for the education sector, and this is evident from what we see today.”
Shaikh Zayed’s vision also included different people living and working together peacefully, and building country together, Al Daheri said.