The Sharjah Private Education Authority (SPEA) has launched a reference and ethical framework for the use of artificial intelligence in educational institutions, announced on 13 October. It applies to schools in the Emirate of Sharjah, and it arrives as schools across the UAE are working out how their own AI policies should look.
The framework is built on principles that will be familiar to anyone who has read international guidance: privacy and data protection; fairness, transparency and accountability; human oversight; critical thinking and verification of AI outputs; cybersecurity and academic integrity. It is aligned with UAE national directives and respects national values and the socio-cultural context.
What makes it useful is what comes next. SPEA says the framework translates those principles into actionable guidelines for schools, and defines roles and responsibilities for school leadership, teachers, students, IT teams, educational specialists and parents.
Four things the framework addresses
Academic integrity. The framework defines the scope of AI use in assignments, projects and assessments. It requires disclosure of AI use where appropriate, and says AI-generated content must not replace original student work or the teacher's role.
Verification. Pupils and staff are expected to verify the accuracy of AI outputs and their sources. That is the core skill of AI literacy, now written into a regulator's expectations.
Roles, not just rules. By naming leaders, teachers, students, IT teams, specialists and parents separately, the framework recognises that each has a different part to play. A teacher deciding whether AI fits a task is doing something different from an IT team approving a tool.
AI in school communications. Unusually, it also covers the use of AI in institutional media and promotional materials, including protecting official symbols and visual identity and ensuring content accuracy. Schools using AI to produce newsletters, social posts or marketing now have an explicit standard to meet.
Aisha Butti Al Ghafli, Director of SPEA's Curriculum and Assessment Department, said the approach safeguards learner privacy and data, reinforces the teacher's role and fosters critical thinking and information verification skills among students.
Using it as a checklist
The announcement summarises the framework rather than reproducing it, so the detail behind each heading is not set out there. But the headings alone make a practical review tool for any school, in Sharjah or elsewhere.
Does your policy say where AI may and may not be used in assessed work? Not just “AI is not allowed”, but which tasks, which stages and what counts as acceptable help.
Does it say when pupils must disclose AI use, and how? A simple, consistent format across subjects avoids confusion.
Does it teach verification, not just require it? Pupils need practice in checking an AI claim against a source before they can be expected to do it in every assignment.
Does every group know its part? Leaders, teachers, pupils, IT staff and parents each need a short statement of what the policy means for them.
Do your own communications follow the same standard? If the school uses AI to write or design public content, someone should check it for accuracy before it goes out.
For schools elsewhere in the UAE and beyond, the SPEA headings are a sensible place to start a review now rather than waiting for local guidance.
Source: Sharjah24, SPEA uses artificial intelligence in education, 13 October 2026. The announcement does not give an implementation date. Applies to educational institutions regulated by SPEA in Sharjah.