SHARE A Special Olympics UAE robotics competition offered children a crucial social lifeline during months of remote learning. The education initiative challenged pupils with and without intellectual disabilities to work together to programme a robot. The opportunity for collaboration and camaraderie proved just as important as learning new skills. The Unified Robotics 2021 Competition, organised by Special Olympics UAE, featured 375 pupils from 44 schools in a series of virtual challenges. These meetings helped pupil's wellbeing. They missed parties and the social aspect of school Richard Mackay, teacher This year, many pupils had to swap in-person meetings for online sessions with their teams where they coded and played games together.