Dubai, UAE, 16 March 2014: GEMS Education, the leading K-12 Education provider, has partnered with edX to provide courses aimed at pre-university students. GEMS will be the first K-12 education provider to team up with the groundbreaking educational consortium. GEMS Education will create courses on the platform specifically aimed at pre- university students, who currently make up 5% of edX’s 2 million users around the world. edX is a joint initiative of Harvard and MIT Universities, founded in spring 2012. The not-for-profit consortium is the most prominent among numerous platforms offering Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCS, which significantly boost access to top-quality education around the world.

The first GEMS courses will appear on the platform in the second half of 2014. GEMS will use the partnership as its most significant foray into the online learning space and the current ‘MOOC’ phenomenon.

GEMS Education will also be the first organization from the United Arab Emirates to partner with edX.

“GEMS has a long history of always looking to be at the cutting edge of education. EdX is at the forefront of the current disruption to traditional learning, and we are excited to build a long term partnership and pioneer K-12 education on the edX platform” said Marc Boxser, GEMS Group Director of External Relations & Strategic Initiatives.

Dino Varkey, Group Chief Operating Officer and Board Member said, “edX has shown how to provide education from some of the world’s greatest institutions available to anyone in the world. This partnership is a natural synergy with GEMS’ mission to put a quality education within reach of every child.”

Anant Agarwal, President of edX said “Our recent new membership structure has opened edx.org to a wider pool of quality course providers, to meet the demand from our global learners for greater diversity and richness in our course offerings. With GEMS, an institution with expertise and global reach in K-12 education, we have an exciting opportunity to offer on our platform courses specifically designed for younger students.”

The partnership was announced at the 2nd annual Global Education & Skills Forum held in Dubai. Read more.