Marking a new era in the field of formal education in Qatar, Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Buthaina bint Ali Al Jabr Al Nuaimi recently announced four main axes for the development of the education system in the country over the next years as part of the implementation of Qatar National Vision 2030. The Minister also announced four initiatives for the new academic year based on the four axes.
The Minister said that the four axes will be focused on students, teachers, schools and higher education. As Qatar is focusing on a knowledge-based economy, the country knows very well that in order to achieve that target and to continue the progress the state is witnessing now science education is of paramount importance. Hence, education system turns its attention mainly on science students, armed with knowledge and characterised by flexibility, passion, curiosity and creativity.
The country has been striving to equip the young minds with skills of the 21st century, and at the same time instilling in them the values of Qatari identity. In the modern lifestyle and with the penetration of information technology into every aspect of daily life, it is essential that everybody has some kind of expertise or at least know-how of the science of how machines work and how to deal with safely and effectively.
The second axes, the Minister said, is schools which Qatar wants to make beacons of science and safe, advanced, rich and attractive environments through the development of early education services, raising enrollment rates, building a comprehensive educational experience aimed at improving the quality of school life of students, designing integrated and flexible pathways for general and technical education for every students and providing enough support to each school.
The noble role of teachers in imparting not only knowledge but also in the character formation of tomorrow’s citizens and leaders is unquestionable. Every society consider them as role models and every person irrespective of whatever position he occupies in his future life respect his teachers throughout his life. So investing in teachers’ capacity building and providing them with enough support with modern-day teaching tools is essential and as such the third axes is aptly the teachers.
The fourth axes is higher education as universities are the cradle of inventions which often define the future way of life. Qatar aims to turn higher education institutes to centres that builds and develops innovations through enhancing their capabilities while ensuring highest level of transparency, accountability and providing equal opportunities to everybody.
