The digital learning revolution triggered by a pandemic was facilitated by connectivity and tech in the region.

More than a year of lockdowns, travel restrictions and caution against the virus forced the world to look for alternatives in the digital realm, starting with the use of e-commerce for daily essentials, before moving towards work-from-home along with online education. Even in the new normal, as children are heading back to schools in the UAE, gadgets as well as virtual solutions are being integrated into physical classrooms for creating a tech-savvy hybrid environment, suitable for the new normal.

Social distancing becoming a norm that's likely to stay for a while, has also led to arrangements where classes may be conducted in person as well as via video, in order to limit the number of students sharing space at a time. Now it has been found that the race to keep up with the changing edtech trends that allowed kids to continue their learning process for months, more than 40% families in the UAE had to buy more sophisticated hardware, which delivered clarity for students.

At a time when e-learning had become the only viable option for billions of pupils on a global level, those in the Emirates were able to cope with changing times thanks to high-speed internet that functions without interruptions, along with the availability of best-in-the-class devices. At the same time their peers in countries like Iraq or neighbouring areas, which don't have the same kind of infrastructure to support quick and large-scale digitisation, weren't able to attend virtual lessons regularly.

In this changing scenario where learning, working, banking and shopping from home or on the move has revolutionised human life, almost half of Emirati kids accessed digital classrooms through smartphones. But results of the survey conducted by Kaspersky also highlighted how 71% children had to tackle technical issues while connecting with schools online.

Although about 16% of the students were able to make devices work by themselves, almost 90% took help from parents to figure things out.