Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 22 | Page 38

COUNTRY FOCUS: UAE Aruba helps Sabari Indian School become a technology leader Sabari Indian School, a Dubai- based school offering the CBSE curriculum, has become a technology leader in the education sector in the UAE by implementing a state-of- the-art wireless infrastructure from Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, and introducing iPad-based learning and a ‘curriculum in the cloud’ education model. 38 INTELLIGENTCIO S abari Indian School was acquired in the year 2015 by Al Najah Education Limited, a specialised education investment company that is a part of the Al Masah Capital private equity firm. After the acquisition, the management of Al Najah Education Limited decided to make significant technological improvements in order to raise the rating given to the school by Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) and the IT division was tasked with the responsibility of driving this initiative. Ashith Piriyattiath, Group Head of IT at Al Masah Capital Management, said: “Incorporating technological innovation for learning is a key factor in improving a school’s KHDA rating so we were eager to introduce eLearning and iPad- based course delivery. We also wanted to save our students the trouble of having to carry a five to 6kg bag to school each day.” The school’s existing Wi-Fi infrastructure was inadequate to support its ambitions of getting an iPad into www.intelligentcio.com