For last three days, Doha has been hosting top educators and decision-makers from all over the world who were discussing and brainstorming ways to build the future of education.
In the last decade, World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has managed to bring together vari-ous stakeholders in the field of education – be it teachers, ministers, non-profit groups or private players – to find ways to improve dissemination of knowledge among students.
Qatar Foundation, under the leadership of its Chairperson, H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, set up WISE in 2009 and over the years it has grown to become one of the most important international summits for education. There were over 3,000 participants from more than 110 countries at the opening session of the WISE 2019.
Over the years, Sheikha Moza has done a lot for global education through various programmes she launched and also by pushing international bodies to act on providing quality education to every kid in the world without any bias or discrimination, even in conflict zones. WISE is one such effort by Her Highness aimed at rethinking and reimagining the conventional way of education to bring in innovation though collective effort of the best minds in the field.
Qatar has always led by example by constantly upgrading and bringing in positively disruptive changes into education in the country. Qatar’s educational sector has seen many innovative decisions – both in technology and content – over the years.
WISE summits always tend to push the delegates to think and rethink current practices and how to better transform the existing system in such a way that it will benefit current and future generations. To this extend, this year’s theme - ‘UnLearn ReLearn: What it means to be Human’ - aptly summarises the goal of the biannual summit.
The discussions at WISE 2019 addressed several questions including: Should schools teach students how to be happy? Will artificial intelligence make teachers obsolete? Can the latest discoveries in neu-roscience make our kids smarter? Do students care about what they are learning? Should schools get rid of grading systems? And Should students pledge a percentage of their future salary to fund their higher education?
All the answers might not be found from one summit, but the most important thing is questions are being asked and discussions started. Depending on the interest of the State and decision makers, some countries might move faster in finding news ways to teach and learn. Eventually it will percolate to other nations as well. Summits like WISE ignite the ideas and thoughts and rest will surely follow.
