CONNECTING MINDS, CREATING FUTURE!

It was the beginning of the academic year 2017-18. An unusual mail popped in my inbox, that too from KHDA* inviting me to be part of the EXPO school team for developing resources for school children. It was an entry into an interesting, innovative world of opportunities for a better future. Without hesitation, I joined the EXPO school program and forever became one of the passionate members of the EXPO 2020 Dubai community.

With EXPO 2020 Dubai drawing to a close, I am getting drawn into the flashback as an EXPO teacher coordinator. Should I call it ‘publicity’ or ‘creating awareness”? Should I call it ‘planning’ or ‘delivering’? Or is it the ‘process of nation building’? It's an amazing journey that truly connected minds by creating the future. One can call it a strategy and it was a powerful strategy to connect the school community to connect minds for creating a future. It is a journey to turn visions into reality. Students who visited the barren land in 2013 to form the EXPO logo with white and blue umbrellas have clearly cherished the memory and are proudly posting it as their status. Some of those kids of yesteryears are involved at EXPO as volunteers, entrepreneurs or innovators. They have experienced history in making. I remember schools incorporating and imbedding ‘innovation and innovative outlook’ into the formal and informal curricula and systematically making it part of the everyday learning of the child from the early stages of schooling.

As part of the School EXPO community, in the academic year 2017-18, we attended a couple of workshops on understanding the vision of the school program and contributed resources in the form of interactive lessons plans and learning activities. It was in 2018 when we were grouped under the theme of ‘OPPORTUNITY’, ‘MOBILITY’ and ‘SUSTAINABILITY’. My chosen topic was ‘conservation of resources and green buildings’. It’s so nostalgic to read that lesson plan and turn the pages of the book which incorporated some of the ideas that we shared. EXPO school program team visited schools and conducted seminars with teachers explaining the importance of ‘creating future’.

The academic year 2018-19, the School EXPO program, invited students to its centre where students not only could present their ideas and programs but also could learn more about world EXPOs and what earlier generations offered us. World’s Next Generation Majlis offered a platform for thought leadership. I can visualize our students participating in these and many such activities.

That’s not all. COVID and the current pandemic could not dampen the spirit to emerge like a phoenix. We had booked school trips, cancelled them and rebooked. District 2020 waited for us one additional year and welcomed the world with open arms and masks on. If the trailer was so powerful, no wonder it was the greatest show in the world. Schools were happy to arrange trips to EXPO as those were age-specific curated school field trips designed by EXPO. Not just students, we teachers too were happy to collect stamps, walk with robots, dance in the waterfall, experience the rainfall, rainforest, visit countries we know, visit countries we had not heard of.

As we say goodbye to the greatest show in the world, we begin a new chapter of making a new world towards a better future.

I am proud of being part of this incredible experience.

Image credit: EXPO 2020 Dubai, Gulf News,

KHDA - Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA)- The Knowledge and Human Development Authority is the educational quality assurance and regulatory authority of the Government of Dubai, United Arab Emirates.