Abu-Ghazaleh Announces the Launch of the First-of-its-Kind Smart School Bag in the World

BEIRUT - Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Global (TAG.Global) jointly with the Lebanese Portal of Education, Development, Accreditation, and Technology (PEDAGOGY) Consulting Firm, have launched the Smart School Bag Project, under the patronage, and in the presence of Lebanon’s Minister of Education and Higher Education, HE Dr. Abbas Halabi, and HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, TAG.Global founder and chairman.

The ceremony which was held at the Ministry’s auditorium, was attended by representatives of the education sector from various Lebanese governorates, officials from the Ministry, members of the Center for Educational Research and Development, as well as a host of school principals and heads of educational institutions. That is in addition to representatives from education syndicates and associations, educational offices, academics, educational researchers, and union officials. 

In his address, Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh expressed his pride in launching the first-of-its-kind smart school bag in the Arab region, calling on all Arab youth to be filled with ambition and strong will towards the future. He stressed the importance of lifelong learning, considering it as basic as food and water, recalling the beginning of the technological and digital revolution.

Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh stated that education development started a long time ago, ever since he had chaired the first UN conference on Transforming Education, that focused mainly on standards and reporting. He said: "today is the time to think about the future, and the need to shift from education to learning to encourage innovation attributed to its importance in creating jobs and boosting world economies”adding:
“It is a historic moment to launch this global digital transformation project from my beloved country, Lebanon."

For his part, Minister Halabi praised Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh’s efforts  in implementing the digital transformation strategy in Lebanon. He mentioned that the Smart School Bag would effectively lessen the burden on teachers, learners and parents thanks to its technical flexibility. He further stated that the digital transformation is part of the Ministry’s mission, which already signed the digital transformation agreement at the United Nations to introduce it into the Lebanese curriculum.

Meanwhile, PEDAGOGY Co-founder and General Manager, Mr. Hani Hamed, commended the role played by the Ministry in enhancing the partnership between the public and the private sectors to promote the educational process, pointing to the efforts of the Center for Educational Research and Development in coordination and cooperation with TAG.Global in developing the Smart School Bag project. This initiative, he noted, was materialized through the inauguration TAG.Global’s  Technologies (TAGTech) factories in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and China.

In the same context, PEDAGOGY developed special software in partnership with leading global technology companies to digitize curricula, transform schoolbooks and develop interactive digital educational content for all academic levels.

Mr. Hamed reviewed the different stages of the Smart Bag’s development, praising the team’s tremendous dedication that resulted in creating 143 e-books in Arabic, English and French. He further announced that the educational curricula was awarded the Quality Matters Accreditation; the leading accreditation for developing quality indicators for e-learning, in addition to attaining a second accreditation by ARRAY Global Accreditation for academic programs and educational curricula.

For his part, PEDAGOGY Educational Programs Manager, Mr. Fayad El-Halabi, gave additional details of the Smart Bag, which includes diverse, interesting and non-traditional digital educational content in line with the requirements of the Knowledge Revolution the world is currently passing through. Such a Bag also keeps pace with the era of Artificial Intelligence and meets the aspirations of learners in the digital age as well as the growing market needs for 21st Century skills.

Mr. El-Halabi referred to a number of projects carried out by PEDAGOGY in terms of digital content, such as the project to convert paper educational curricula into interactive digital curricula for the Ministry of Education in Iraq, and a similar project in Saudi Arabia. He then gave additional details about TAGTech’s technological devices that constituted the main part in the development of the Smart Bag.

It is worth mentioning that the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh for Technology (TAGTech) started manufacturing electronic devices including laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other technological devices, at its factories in China, Egypt, and Jordan by Jordanian experts specialized in the manufacturing and production field, offered in more than 50-locations worldwide.

For further information about TAGTech, please visit the website: www.tagtech.global