The Future Is Already Here

Children today are born into a world where rapid technological advancement is transforming the very foundations of professional and social life. Traditional educational models simply cannot keep pace with these changes. At BC Academy, we decided to merge academic education with entrepreneurial skills and the technologies of tomorrow, says Dinar Nasyrov, technology entrepreneur and founder of BC Academy International School in Dubai.

One moment stays with me. The father of one of our pupils, an Emirati who owns a substantial business, said: 'I transferred my son from an American school to yours because I need him to become a leader, an entrepreneur, not merely a straight-A student.' For me, this confirmed we were moving in the right direction.
This story is just one of many confirmations that BC Academy is on the right path. We are creating what might be called not simply a school but an educational technology park, where the British curriculum is enriched with entrepreneurial thinking and modern technologies.

The Beginning

My journey into education began during my studies in America. I was completing an MBA whilst studying international business at MIT Sloan. It was there I first encountered research into bilingualism. It transformed my understanding of child development: children who communicate with native speakers of different languages before the age of three develop more flexible and abstract thinking.

MIT had already been studying bilingualism for ten years at that point. It was pioneering work. Many countries believed second and third languages should be learnt later, so as not to interfere with the first. But research showed the opposite: children from bilingual families demonstrated more developed abstract thinking in their early school years. They gave more varied responses to different types of tasks and showed greater cognitive flexibility.

When our son was born in 2009, my wife Albina and I began searching for a nursery where there would be a welcoming atmosphere and children would be exposed to different languages. We found nothing suitable and eventually opened our own. The city supported us, and so our educational story began.

Initially we planned to run the nursery for three to five years, until our son started school, and then close it. But things turned out differently. Parents kept calling, requesting places for their children. Albina became absorbed in the work, whilst I was managing a technology park in the high-tech sector at the time.

When the first graduates from our nursery moved on to various schools, parents began complaining. Children accustomed to asking questions and showing initiative found themselves being silenced, relegated to the back rows. Parents started asking us to open a primary school, and we took the plunge. The nursery grew into a school, and today our graduates study at the world's finest universities. Eventually we ran seven nurseries and two schools.

The Dubai Project

Two years ago, we moved to Dubai. The Ministry of Education immediately showed interest in our experience. For many years I had managed an IT park, created business incubators, worked with startups and innovative projects.
When we were running the technology park, global companies like Cisco, IBM and Juniper would visit us and express surprise: 'You have exactly the same incubator models as we do. Where did you copy this from?' But we had arrived at this model ourselves, through constant dialogue with entrepreneurs and IT teams. This experience allowed me to implement progressive approaches in education.

We created an environment, ran training programmes for startups and understood the key limitation: many university graduates with excellent academic knowledge cannot develop projects. So when opening the school, we understood clearly: academic knowledge alone is insufficient. We need to develop project-based work and entrepreneurial experience. Dubai, a city that values innovation, became the ideal platform for realising this idea.

Entrepreneurship and Projects

Today what sets BC Academy apart is that we have integrated everything connected with entrepreneurship into the British academic programme. If you look at interviews with professors from Stanford, Harvard or MIT, they say the same thing: universities are not interested in merely clever children who excel in one subject. They want well-rounded individuals. Breadth of perspective and the ability to work in teams matters.

According to research, a person's entire mindset is formed during pre-school and primary school years. Nobel laureate Douglass North used to say that it is at this age that mentality takes shape. By secondary school and university it is too late to change much, because patterns of thinking and habits are already established.

The difficulty in implementing project-based learning is that the number of hours is limited, especially in Dubai with its many holidays and public days off. This is why life skills such as teamwork, critical thinking and communication cannot be taught as separate subjects but must be integrated throughout the programme.

The problem is also that teachers trained to be teachers know their narrow field but have never engaged in project work or created new developments themselves. So we seek particular kinds of educators: either those with traditional qualifications or those who left teaching, worked in another field, realised that real life is quite different and returned to education. We also bring in actual entrepreneurs to run clubs and projects.

We are now creating a business incubator within the school, starting from the primary years. We run startup weeks, just as we did with startups at the best American technology parks in California: Y Combinator, Blackbox. In Finland we partnered with Startup Sauna in Helsinki and worked with technology parks in Boston.

What does this look like in practice? Take pupils aged nine to ten, Years 4 and 5. We ask which games they like. The children create a table in Google Sheets, build a summary table, use formulae and analyse which games are most popular. Then we tell them that game developers are coming next week who will be interested if they propose a new concept.

The children divide into teams. At first they choose their friends but quickly realise this doesn't work and begin seeking people based on competencies. They create presentations, websites, appoint a project leader, rather like a scrum master. These are real projects, not fake school assignments.

Children don't simply learn theory; they create real projects. Our pupils released a game called Scary Cat, which can be purchased in the App Store. They designed branding for a confectionery shop and developed an environmental board game. Each year we hold StartupVillage, where children present their projects to entrepreneurs and the best receive funding.

School Architecture

Our school differs in its architecture too. We call it an 'educational technology park'. Space plays the role of the third teacher: a large atrium, open laboratories, abundant light and glass.

We have a large atrium, which many schools lack. Children can leave their classrooms, socialise, play. All laboratories are accessible, rooms remain unlocked (except those containing potentially hazardous materials). Teachers are free to choose their space and may conduct lessons in classrooms, the library, atrium or laboratories.

Even my office is transparent. I see the children, and they see me. It symbolises openness. We use architectural solutions to create a sense of modernity: much glass, much light, everything open, everything visible.

For the little ones we created a special space: Heritage and Mars Room. In Dubai's hot climate, where going outside for long is impossible, children desperately need a large, air-conditioned play area indoors. Heritage reflects tradition, whilst Mars symbolises the future. This symbolism inspires children, as Dubai already plans to participate in Mars missions by 2030.

The UAE Ministry of Education and Knowledge Fund helped us secure the building. In February we received an old government school building and in four to five months completed a full renovation and obtained all necessary documentation. No one believed this could be done so quickly in Dubai. But thanks to an entrepreneurial approach, we succeeded.

When inspectors from KHDA and Knowledge Fund visit us, they express amazement at what we have accomplished. They say they have never seen an old government school transformed into something so modern and stylish.
Results and Recognition

Our efforts gained recognition: in 2025 we received the award for Best New School in Dubai. This is particularly significant given that dozens of new educational establishments open annually in the emirate.

Currently 180 children study at BC Academy, though our maximum capacity is 700, and the junior classes already have waiting lists. There are waiting lists for FS1, FS2 (pre-school groups), Years One, Two and Three. Places remain in senior school, but the most sought-after ages are already filled.

The school grounds cover 20,000 square metres (two hectares), whilst the two-storey building measures 10,000 square metres. We have science laboratories for primary school and robotics laboratories for both primary and secondary. Many prestigious schools only introduce such laboratories at secondary level, but ours are available from Year One.

Technology and AI

From Year One we introduce entrepreneurship and robotics into the programme. There is a separate subject, Future Tech, covering programming, artificial intelligence and Arduino.

We actively implement AI: children draw characters for their games using these technologies, whilst teachers attend training sessions with Google. I am convinced that a teacher who does not use AI today wastes time inefficiently.
Google has released excellent tools for educators within its Gemini environment, and we run joint training sessions with Google for our teachers. Teachers have knowledge about each child and the objectives from the British programme for each age and term. We use the Century system, which automatically shows which skills have been mastered and which have not.

Previously we made tables for each pupil with objectives for every subject. When children completed assignments, the teacher would mark progress and see who understood what. Now AI does this for us: it analyses the table and creates individual learning plans.

Supporting Different Children

Our task is for all children to master the basics, but for those who progress faster, we create additional challenges. There will be gaps, and this is normal because children differ. Our task is to ensure everyone masters the fundamentals (children should grasp 80 per cent of topics by year's end), but those who advance faster must be constantly fed more engaging assignments.

We develop the olympiad movement: this year our pupils are going to a mathematics olympiad in Singapore, as well as educational trips to Japan, England and Italy. In Florence, children interested in architecture and design will meet a university professor, arranged with the support of Lorenzo Quinn.

We believe in the principle 'think globally, act locally' and transform such trips into educational expeditions. For children to be open to the world (and Dubai is already an international city where a single class may contain more than ten nationalities), we organise annual educational journeys. These are not merely tourism but visits to schools, universities and cultural programmes.

Beyond the main programme, BC Academy works with 18 different providers of additional education. We now have 29 interest clubs, from sailing and horse riding to judo and robotics. Our approach distinguishes itself in that we manage all extra-curricular clubs ourselves: we find providers, monitor quality and change them when necessary.

In most schools the administration is responsible for core educational content until three o'clock, after which they say: 'We have providers, negotiate with them yourselves.' We, however, respond to children's needs.

We pay considerable attention to languages. Many parents, particularly from Emirati families, worry their children are losing Arabic. For us, multilingualism forms a vital part of our concept. We have native speakers for English and Arabic, plus additional languages: Turkish, Italian, French, Russian, Chinese, all with native speakers.

Atmosphere and Families

The atmosphere at BC Academy is a particular source of pride. A single class may contain up to ten nationalities, and it is this cultural diversity that makes the school stand out. Parents transfer their children to us from Dubai's most prestigious schools because they seek intimacy, attention to the child's individuality and opportunities for leadership.
Recently children from Emirati families have begun joining us, transferring from prestigious schools: American School, Brighton School. Parents say that in large schools with three thousand pupils their children simply go unnoticed, the child does not feel like an individual.

I remember one boy who was considered unsuccessful at his previous school. Two weeks after joining us, his mother said: 'I don't recognise my child.' We gave him a leadership role, and he flourished. Today he runs a blog and actively participates in school projects.

When a child discovers passion and interest, they begin to study well. This is the secret: the right school, the right environment, and the pupil blossoms like a flower. If parents see their child reluctant to go to school, sullen, despondent, without apparent strengths, or if the school fails to recognise them, this signals the need for a change of environment.

The School's Future

We are building a school that stays one step ahead. In spring 2026 we shall hold a major technology festival together with Google and other IT companies. It will be a celebration for primary school where every child receives an award. What matters is not competition but engagement and the desire to create.

The festival targets primary school children because whilst there are many olympiads in robotics and IT for secondary pupils, there are few for younger ones. We want to popularise AI and IT technologies, to make children fall in love with this sphere so they are not afraid to try, both girls and boys.

We want to develop entrepreneurial themes across Dubai. Even in excellent schools, projects with older pupils are conducted at the level of essays, academic papers, research work, but this is not true entrepreneurship.
Our approach is Agile. We respond flexibly to changes. Schools usually plan a year ahead; we take a different approach, altering the programme each term. We are transforming teachers into project managers so they can work with children as equals.

I believe BC Academy is a new type of school. We truly prepare children for life and leadership starting today. In Dubai, a city unafraid of trying new things, our model finds support and recognition. Most importantly, we see how our pupils grow, develop and realise their potential right now.